Close Encounters 27
by chezchuckles
Summary: SeaFire. "When Kate spoke, her voice was ragged. 'Diane Jolin is exhuming Dick Coonan's body.'" The spies try to get ahead of Diane Jolin's investigation into the program.
1. Chapter 1

**Close Encounters 27: Sea Fire**

* * *

All my heartfelt gratitude to **cartographical**, who continues to inspire me with her rabid love for the spies. She truly deserves the credit for evolving the storyline and keeping straight all the details of their world.

_Previously on CE 26:_

_When Kate spoke, her voice was ragged. "Diane Jolin is exhuming Dick Coonan's body."_

* * *

"Don't worry. Body's not there."

Kate lifted her head, stared up at her husband. "What."

"Body's not there. We didn't bury Coonan."

"But I've been there-" Kate cut herself off, realizing in some alternate scheme of things that had sounded a little more obsessive and desperate and _sad_ than she really was. "You didn't bury Coonan."

"Nope. Empty box," he grinned. He offered her a hand. "So get up from the floor, sweetheart. Not so bad as all that."

She took his hand, her other arm wrapped around James, and he brought them both up. Castle was looking so smug and self-righteous_._

She really could throttle her husband. "You buried a box," she said slowly. "My mother's murderer. Gone. And you never saw fit to tell me?"

"That was ages ago," he scoffed, reaching for James. He kissed the boy's forehead and then put him back down on his feet on the floor.

Kate could see the broad expanse of her husband's shoulders as he bent over, the vulnerable line of his neck. Smooth skin, never marred for long.

She wanted to do some marring.

"Ages ago," she repeated. "And what... we got married and you never said, _Hey, Kate, I've absconded with a murderer._"

"Absconded," he murmured, lifting back up to look at her. Heat and lust rose in his eyes, and she was entirely not in the mood. "Good word, babe."

She knocked his hand away. "I'm not your babe. What did you _do_ with Coonan?"

"We burned him."

Her heart lurched.

Castle went very still, hand frozen halfway towards her, as if only now had he seen what this was doing to her. "Oh. Kate. I - we just - he stabbed me and you shot him and I only - wanted to protect you, in case - fuck, it was all his idea. I didn't think."

"What?" she rasped. They had burned Dick Coonan. That murdering psychopath had gone to the flames without her.

"It was Black's idea to get rid of the body, because of his connection to the program, and I just - went along with it. Like I always did when it came to him. Damn it. I'm sorry. It never occurred to me - shit, Kate. Shit. Why did it never occur to me that it would _matter_ to you?"

She really couldn't handle her own breakdown and his at the same time. One of them needed to keep it together. "Castle," she said faintly.

He snagged her by the elbows, hauled her into his chest. She stumbled over James, felt the boy clinging to her jeans. "Never mind," Castle gruffed. "Never mind, Kate. It's done. What's important is that there is no body for Jolin to find. It won't lead back to you."

"She already knows me," Kate got out, her face buried at his shirt. They were in the kitchen, the warm, galley kitchen with its weathered painted cabinets and its little touches, their kitchen, where Castle had made James's baby food from scratch and where she had later wiped that same baby food off the ceiling and chair rail and everywhere.

How could this be happening here?

Castle put his lips against her temple. "She can't know about-"

"She'd have to know," Kate cut in. "She'd have to know where to look. Coonan. Why Coonan? Of all the test subjects that went bad-"

"Because he was the only one to _live_," Castle rasped. "Kate, remember? Black told us - the advanced chelation treatment that he modified to use on those soldiers - Coonan was the only one to survive."

"I thought a handful survived."

"A handful survived the first treatments, the first shots. Half the group didn't make it past the first round, Kate. And then the squad went out and did missions for months, at least two years, and I... went with them."

"I didn't know that," she startled, tripping over James again as she reared back to look at her husband. It was his serious face, jaw locked, stubborn. She tightened her grip on his arms. "You never said that. Why did you not-"

"I didn't - I thought you knew. I thought that's what he was telling you when - the look on your face made me think you knew. That day in the airport. And maybe I just didn't want you to know what I'd done."

"But that group, they went AWOL. Right? You didn't, but they did."

"Yeah."

"And after that, your father rounded them all up and treated them for - for total psychological breakdown-" She bit it off, swallowed to get control over herself. "Black treated them - that was all before '99, before my mother was killed. He tried to rehab them."

"Yes. That was in '98, and then Black pulled the military program. Leaving Coonan at loose ends, where he became a gun for hire-"

"But that wasn't Black. He didn't set that up, did he?"

"I don't - I don't think so." His face soured and he shook his head. "I don't have any damn idea. For all I know, Black was the one hiring Coonan out. I never - that never occurred to me before. Fuck."

She didn't have it in her to comfort him. She felt sick - this was everything she'd never quite gotten closure on. And because there'd been no closure, because Bracken had died a martyr, she hadn't wanted to think about it. Now she wished she had. "Regardless - whoever was hiring him out, he _was_ hired. Coonan was a hired gun, and Bracken used him to murder my mother. Because he was - on the program. Diane Joline had to _know_ that, Castle, in order to go _looking_ for him."

"How?"

"Black told us himself that Jolin - that they discussed things."

"Pillow talk," he muttered. "The psychotic breaks - he told her about those. They were so violent that it kept Jolin and the Collective from pursuing their own human experiments. Black was doing that on purpose. While he looked for a way to halt the rapid deterioration of higher functioning in real people, Jolin worked on rats. Soldiers who can't shoot or make decisions are no good to anyone. But if the Collective thought they'd been wasting decades on _rats_ while a live human experiment was walking around-"

"Fuck," she whispered.

"Yeah. But Black did the advanced chelation on the guys in that squad, and Coonan was the only one to survive that experimental treatment - until _you_. And Jolin - she warned _you _about it, remember? At the park. She told you that it had side effects. It's you I'm worried about. How the _hell_ did she make that connection to Coonan, to the human experiments?"

She shivered and drew herself back against him, wrapping her arms at his waist. James was sitting on one of her feet, still and quiet.

All good questions, but she couldn't let go of the fact that the grave would be empty. "But Coonan - Castle he killed my mom-"

"His body couldn't go in the ground," Castle whispered. "CIA op; the program. He had to disappear."

Kate glanced down and saw her son looking up at them. She released Castle and bent down, got James in her arms and stood once more. Her son's cheek came to her shoulder and he snuggled in at her chest, comforting, comforted.

"I know how she made the connection. Jolin knows it was me - thinks _I'm _the experiment," she said finally. She couldn't look at Castle; she set her chin on the top of James's head. "And it will seem like too big a coincidence that I'm on record as having fatally shot Coonan. NYPD database. You didn't change that, did you?"

"We... didn't change that," Castle husked. "Shit."

"I think this just got really bad."

* * *

He was on the phone with Mitchell, trying to confirm Jolin's presence in New York, and Beckett was dealing with Hunt - having the man go through his story piece by piece, though Castle wasn't sure he trusted it. Esposito had texted him a few hundred times, no less, giving him updates on the attempted exhumation, which was being protested by the next of kin, apparently a dead brother's girlfriend with some suspicious ties to the Westies.

_Everything_ circled back to Bracken these days. It had to be taking a toll on Kate.

Castle scooped James off of Sasha's back - again - and put the kid on his feet once more. "Stay down, James Beckett."

"I've noticed you call him by _my_ name when he's in trouble," Kate said from the other room. She had her eyebrow raised, but she was on the phone too. Must be trying to confirm Hunt's story with outside sources.

"Fits, doesn't it?"

James shrieked something that drowned out her answer, and the boy was off and _running_.

Running.

Literally running. No dog as crutch, completely unaided, running like he'd done it for _years_.

"Wow," Kate gaped. "James, baby, aren't you so fast?" She got on her knees before the couch and held her arms out to him, but James laughed and abruptly shifted course, disappeared into the kitchen.

Oh, hell. They did not need a quiet, curious boy able to run from them right now.

Pots and pans clattered.

"Shit," Kate grunted, getting off her knees. But she had that distracted look on her face that meant she was listening to the voice on the phone.

"I got him," he said. He was on duty anyway; he was the one who'd plucked the kid off Sasha's back even though James had an excellent death grip on her fur and Sasha seemed content to stand there and take it. "I got him; sit down, Kate. I'm on hold with Mitch."

He headed into the kitchen and found their unsteady boy on his feet, hanging onto the open cabinet. The baby lock was strewn in pieces across the floor.

"Wolf, your lock-picking skills are remarkable. But Mom is gonna freak. So let's keep this between me and you and put it all back, okay? We'll reassemble the lock and Daddy will just make sure we don't put rat poison down here."

"Dada."

"Exactly. I got it covered. Here, play with this." He tossed a pot lid at the kid's feet and it clattered, spun past the boy. James clapped his hands and wobbled, fell to his bottom and rocked forward to crawl after the lid.

Castle reassembled the baby lock, put the pots and pans back inside the cabinet. He checked it out, made sure the cabinet didn't hold any surprises for later, and winced when James slammed the lid into the floor.

"Okay, okay, my mistake, James Beckett. Here, hand it over." He reached out his hand and curled his fingers in their combat signal for _give that to me_, and James tilted his head.

But he didn't protest when Castle slid it out from under his hand, though he tried to come after it. James crawled right up to Castle and hung on his knee where Castle was squatting down, then tried to take the phone from him.

"Castle?" said the voice on the line.

"Mitch, hey, what've you got?" he asked, talking around James's little fingers. "You're getting annoying, Beckett. Settle down. Let's find you something to play with that isn't so noisy, huh?"

"I don't think that's something I need to hear. Bedroom stays _in _the bedroom-"

"Talking to Echo," he snorted. "What did you find out for me?" Castle scooped James into his arms and stood, heading out of the kitchen through the dining room, out to the foyer, and up the stairs to avoid his son's spotting Kate. James kept diving out of his arms for her, not very happy to have Hunt close to her either.

"It's confirmed. Diane Jolin checked out of American Hospital against medical advice, but get this-"

"Yeah?" He twisted his head to avoid James's fingers.

"This field trip of hers is unsanctioned. She's gone rogue."

"How can you possibly know that?"

"Walker."

"Walker?" Castle repeated. "How did _he_ get that information?"

"He had some connections - resources from when he was in Black's technological circle. He called on them, surreptitiously. Mined their data. I don't know - technical shit. He's shaking his head at me. Firing this guy was a huge mistake, Castle."

"Rub my fucking nose in it. You know I had to. Firing _you_ was a huge mistake too. Define unsanctioned."

"A few guys Walker knows say that Jolin shook off the medical team that got dispatched to her bedside - most likely they were Collective agents, though that's not confirmed, but one of them _I _could ID, Castle."

"You ID'd him?"

"One of Saber's lackeys. Your doc. You remember how he had that damn team for you?"

Castle blinked, absorbing that information. "One of Dr Saber's proteges was sent to American Hospital in Paris to Diane Jolin's bedside."

"Exactly."

"Well, shit."

"Don't curse in front of Echo."

"Fuck off."

"Uck!"

"I _heard_ that, man. You are fucked if Beckett hears that."

"She does it more than I do," he muttered, stepping into James's room with the kid and letting him slide down his leg to the floor. "Jay, go find your elephant. Help me out here."

James scooted off, though whether or not he knew what Castle was asking for was doubtful. On the phone, Mitchell was chuckling, saying something off the line to Walker, most likely.

"Mitch. What's this lackey's name?"

"Andre Silberg. Sellberg. We're not sure - I couldn't remember the spelling, and we don't have records on him. Which proves my point - he's Collective because he's been wiped so completely clean. My guess is that Saber's team got poached when Black kicked Saber to the curb."

"All right, so walk me through this." Castle sank down to the floor and watched his son pulling books off the low bookshelf. The kid was spreading them around the rug, making piles. He didn't act much like a nine month old, now that Castle was paying attention. Those old man eyes of his didn't help, of course, but he had such control of his movements. Three months ago he had looked like a baby, now he was a toddler. Running in the house.

"So Silberg, whatever his name - let's call him Andre. His team goes in to American Hospital, the on-call attending is told politely, _no thanks, she's got specialized care for her condition,_ and all French medical reports cease. We've got no idea if she's receiving PT for those knees, but those gunshot wounds were bad shit, Castle. You really fucked her up."

"Thanks," he said grimly. He wasn't pleased. He had made a near-fatal error that day on the roof in the pouring rain, thinking Jolin had done something to Kate. He had _created_ this.

"Point is, Castle, she walked out of American."

_Walked? _"No."

"She did. Confirmed. That is a confirmation from two independent sources of mine - Walker had one guy, I had the other, a nurse, no cross-contamination possible."

"No. There is no fucking way that woman was _walking_ anywhere."

"Exactly." Mitch grunted. "This is some fucked up shit, Castle. This does not make sense."

"I gotta see her for myself," he said, a cold horror washing over him. Realization, understanding - he thought he knew, he was afraid he knew what had happened. "I need eyes on her, Mitchell. Get me a location in the city."

"I'm working on it."

He had to see for himself. If she was walking-

Shit.

And here came his mobile, fast little boy, running for him from across the room.

If Jolin was walking like his kid was running-

James collided with him, giggling, clinging to his neck, slapping a board book into Castle's chest. "Uck!"

"Book," he said idly. "But yeah. Fuck."

* * *

Castle didn't look good when he came down the stairs; he had that intensity to his eyes that meant he had an idea and he didn't like it.

"You okay?" he asked her. She was hunched on the bottom step, waiting for him, now that Hunt had sunk into a kind of defensive unconsciousness on the couch. He might be playing possum, but she bet the wound really did hurt.

"I'm okay."

Castle sank down to the step beside her, wrapped an arm around her neck. She let herself fall into him, taking a deep breath of her husband's warm skin.

She loved that smell. "Sometimes, he looks just like you."

"James?"

"Colin Hunt," she sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know how to - do this."

"Then don't. Kick him out."

She lifted her head. "Don't make me the bad guy."

"How does that make you the bad guy? I'll kick him out. Let me get him-"

"No. You know we can't," she hissed, nudging hard into his chest. "I mean stop acting wounded. I thought you got this out of your system when you bruised my neck in bed."

He immediately closed down, that fast, gone from her. Kate felt a moment's slick panic, snaked her arm through his to press close.

"You know I love it when you hold me down," she murmured against his shoulder. "You know I love you-"

"I know. It's not in question."

If it wasn't in question, then why the hell did he have to keep mooning around her, moping one moment and posturing the next, bluffing with that threatening macho shit every time he confronted Hunt? "You're - acting like your mother, you know," she finally said.

"Do _what_?"

"The melodrama. Making a production."

"Melodrama."

"If it bothers you that he kissed me, then that's one thing. But swaggering around the house after you did your claiming in bed-"

"It - bothers me that he kissed you, but not because of you, Kate. Him. He's an asshole."

"Right, I know you think that. But can we agree that he's an asshole we need right now?"

"I've already agreed to that."

"Then will you stop making me miserable?" she muttered. "I am really good at guilt and halfway towards self-loathing, Rick, and I'm getting turned around on this, with you being so considerate and loving one moment and then pissed off and blustery the next. Are you trying to punish me?"

His jaw worked for a moment, his eyes staring straight ahead. "No."

She had a vague notion that James was awfully quiet upstairs, but surely Castle had made sure the boy couldn't escape his room.

He gave a short growl. "Can I not be pissed off that he kissed you?"

"You - can," she hesitated. Her heart twisted at the look on his face. "You can be angry about it. I froze. I'm sorry; I feel like shit. I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to him. No one but you has ever - wanted me quite so _bluntly_ before. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with _you_. But he doesn't even pretend. I don't know what to do with _that_."

"You could've punched him. Kicked him in the balls. I'd have enjoyed that."

"I can't do that," she whispered. Because he - he was - what? Not just attractive, though that was there. "I feel badly for him. For what he can't have."

"He can't have," Castle growled, an echo with such satisfaction in it.

"Castle, I'm going to be honest here because I think this might come up in therapy anyway, but he reminds me of you. Just - as Black does. There's this sense that - that you all have. It's very compelling."

"Are you fucking kidding me." He said it completely dispassionatly. Hollow. Like it had gutted him out.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek and rubbed her thumb against her wrist, rubbed hard until she felt the burn of pain and realized what she was doing. "You have the same hands," she admitted. "And I have trouble - um - you and I are such physical people with each other. There's a kind of sense memory attached for me. I don't know if you do that too, but I have - a lot of my emotions are tied up in your body, my body."

"Don't I know it," he scraped out. "Hell."

She wasn't sure what that meant, exactly, but he had a tone of voice when he cursed that made her guts knot up in the really good way. This was the really good way.

"I don't know how to handle Hunt's - it doesn't seem credible to me at all," she said finally. "You are the only thing that feels credible. When you love me, I _believe_ it."

"You say that like - like you're in awe."

She glanced at him. Shrugged. "I am. You love me. I - am in awe. I don't think I'll ever entirely get used to it."

His fists relaxed. And then he was reaching for her, embracing her tightly. She let out a breath, and his fingers lightly cradled her jaw, stroking. He dipped his mouth to hers, kissing her with these light, sensual brushes of his lips. Delicate with her. Not punishing.

She held on to him just as lightly, afraid to break something, afraid it would stop.

He angled her away and pulled back, a hand combing her hair behind her ear. "Believe me."

"So long as you believe me."

"You, Kate Rodgers, have never been in doubt."

* * *

She was creating a database on the laptop for him, everything she'd learned from her 'conversations' with Hunt. Castle watched her for a moment more and then got up from his perch on the coffee table and moved back to the kitchen doorway.

James was playing happily with Sasha doing guard duty from the floor in front of the basement door. His son was creating piles from various items found around the house - he seemed to be intent on stacking diaper cloths onto tupperware containers in a specific way - and thankfully it was keeping him busy.

Castle came back to sit on the coffee table, recognizing he was doing guard duty as well, and he watched Kate as she worked and Hunt slept.

They were still waiting on a few updates from Mitchell and Esposito - both men calling on their own resources to get a location on Diane Jolin. But Castle had a gut feeling their answer could come quite easily from the asshole asleep on their couch.

He did not trust Colin Hunt. Even less so now that Castle knew the man was his half-brother. The John Black genetics didn't allow much room for things like loyalty or love or conscience. Castle should know - he'd been lacking all three until he'd met Beckett.

Loved Beckett.

Though he did have to grudgingly admit that Kate Beckett engendered a definite and intense response from those genetics. No one of their ilk seemed able to deny the power she had over them, as if being enthralled. What had she said about his own genetics? Compelled. Well it was equal in response.

In John Black, it had produced a dizzying and terrifying rage, his whole control unmade. In Colin Hunt - whatever it was that had driven him to Kate for protection, bleeding and secretive, it was keeping the man here even now. The wound wasn't so bad that Colin couldn't survive out there alone if he truly wanted to be gone.

So. Hunt didn't want to be gone. He had put himself at Castle's mercy and it wasn't only to spy on them for John Black.

There was more to this, and fortunately or unfortunately, Kate could get it out of him. And whatever her response to Colin Hunt, whatever vague echo of Castle's DNA she saw and felt in Hunt, Castle had no doubt of her. Those feelings were the difference between life itself and the ghost of a life, between full love and the shadow where the sun couldn't touch. Just because Kate looked into the shadows and saw the faint reflections of the truth there didn't mean that Castle had any reason to worry.

But it still pissed him off that she was forced - by Hunt, by this whole damn situation, by the regimen, by his own _history_ \- into this situation. He had barely begun to feel whole again after Paris, to feel like life was their own once more, and whatever anger he had for how it had played out, there was still too much damn gratefulness that she was alive to at all direct his frustration her way.

So he took it out on Colin Hunt.

Colin Hunt who had some master plan he was working here. Castle knew that his wife could get it out of him, eventually. She was brilliant at interrogation, and she had a perfect way in - Hunt's own feelings. He didn't doubt she could do it.

She would have to. This was their life together in the balance; she was going to have to step into those shadows.

And Castle would have to allow it.

Because if Castle was willing to do all of this just for love of Kate Beckett, if John Black had ruined his whole career and alienated his son just to get _rid_ of Kate Beckett, if all of this, _all_ of this had happened in response to her, then what was Colin Hunt willing to do? What was Colin Hunt planning?

Castle felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to check the display. He gave Beckett a grim look, held up his phone as he indicated its alert, and then he answered, walking off.

He stopped in the kitchen and gathered up his son, pressing the phone to his ear.

"What've you found, Mitch?"

"I found Jolin."


	2. Chapter 2

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

Kate wondered if Colin was watching her right now. Probably. She was a little pathetic. She was curled up in the chair with her eyes closed and her phone to her ear, listening to Esposito.

She could barely lift her head from the arm. Whatever recovery she had made within the last few weeks seemed paltry, seemed weak stuff when tested by real life events. She'd done the training and the rehab, she had done the work and been good and taken rest when she was supposed to, but it felt like she'd done nothing right at all.

This was bad. She was so exhausted and Castle would need to go in to the Office for sure. Or out in the field. That was worse; she really hated the idea of them splitting up right now.

But it wasn't like they could leave Colin Hunt alone with their son. She trusted him only to a point.

And well, there were very few people she would entrust her son to. That was just life, not paranoia.

"Kate?"

She jerked her eyes open and saw Castle standing over her with James in his arms. Her phone was in her lap, the living room was quiet, and Colin Hunt was asleep draped over the far end of the couch.

And apparently she had fallen asleep as well. "I'm awake," she husked.

"Barely," her husband sighed. But he leaned over and dropped James in her lap. "I gotta go in, Kate. I'll call your dad to come."

"No, we're fine," she roused, arms circling her son. James was chewing on the corner of a plastic board book and he wriggled back into her, cuddling at her side.

"Kate-"

"We are," she insisted. She was awake. "I'm tired, but we're gonna keep it low-key." Castle was frowning at her and she tried to mentally step back, assess her condition rationally.

"Mitch's team will be just outside, right?" She was trying to think. "And James - I won't let anything happen to him, Rick. If I thought he'd get hurt because I-"

"No," Castle said sharply, sinking down to crouch beside her chair. His hand came over James's foot and kept him from kicking. "That's not what I'm concerned with. You, Kate. You need to _rest_."

She let out a breath and nodded, glad that at least he trusted _her_ with their son. At least- "You know that I won't get any rest. Not with Jolin out there, searching for me. No matter how many people are here."

"I'm - on that," he said. A grim set to his mouth. "I'm - that's where I'm headed actually."

"Headed where?" she said, faint unease stirring in her guts. "Where are you going? Into the Office, right?"

"No. No, there's a hotel-"

"No," she hissed. "No. Castle. You cannot go after her-"

"I'm not going after her," he said. His voice was so steady. "It's long-distance surveillance only. Someone like her - she has to know she's going to be watched. NSA has already been apprised of her location in the city. It's a Joint Task Force; I'm liaison. There will be no action."

"JTF? Those have a way of going horribly wrong," she muttered. "Castle, I don't want you anywhere _near_ her. I don't want any of us near her. I don't want us in the same damn city as anyone from the Collective."

"We need data before we make any decisions," he sighed. "Kate. I'd rather have you with me on this, but I'll be one of many suits out there. She _doesn't_ know my face - she knows yours. And that scares the shit out of me."

Diane Jolin knew her face. Knew _her_. Knew she was the shooter of record for the body she was trying to dig up, knew her police department history, and with that knowledge came the magazine and newspaper articles, the media coverage - the shooting of William Bracken - and the cover story put out by the CIA for her.

"Oh, God," she whispered, staring up at Castle. "She _does_ know you. She knows that an undercover NYPD detective was under house arrest - joined by her _husband_, an accountant, at their residence - where my _father_ lives. Castle-"

"She knows the face of an accountant," he said quickly. "And per your request, I never shaved after Paris. The scruff will hide the shape of my face; it puts shadows up where there wouldn't be. Plus the glasses - and really, Kate-"

"You're not fucking Clark Kent," she groaned. "Castle. God. Don't-"

"I have to do this. I have to _know_ what she is doing, where she's going, who she talks to. We have to stay on top of this, Kate. Because it is certain that she knows you, knows your face and your name and your damn credit cards. You're a public figure. And while officially it looks like we still reside in DC, she obviously knows better."

"I'm - putting everyone at risk," she husked. Kate glanced down at her son, still really a baby, only nine months old, chewing on a board book as he cut teeth. Defenseless. "I've brought her here."

"No, Kate. I brought her here. I fucking shot out her kneecaps. Let me make amends, love. At least let me - try to put this to right again."

Kate reached out and gripped the collar of his dress shirt - another man in a suit - and he tilted forward into her knees, his hands bracketing James in her lap. She hunched over and kissed her accountant hard, fierce, her husband who was in danger from the Collective but wanted to go straight into the lions' den anyway. For her.

"I love you," she rasped. "Don't do anything stupid. Don't do anything _I _wouldn't let you do."

"I love you too," he murmured. "Call Mitchell if you're falling asleep, babe. Promise me."

"I would never hurt him," she whispered.

"Not for James," he answered, cupping her jaw and stroking. "Oh, Kate, not for James. For you. Because you died, love. You died again and again in Paris, and I just got you back."

Kate sucked in a hard breath, tightened her arm around his neck. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

Castle laughed, choked though it was. "I know. Just be as good to yourself as I would be. And I'll not do anything you wouldn't let me."

She smiled against his neck. "Deal."

"Be brave," he murmured, and he rose to his feet.

* * *

When she looked, there were notifications on her phone that she had missed when she'd fallen asleep. Mitchell had briefed the CIA/NSA Task Force about Jolin's behavior out of Paris - checking out of American Hospital AMA, shaking loose her medical team, acquiring five men who looked to be personal security, flying to the States to immediately dig through records.

And a cemetery.

Esposito had messaged her that he was offended she'd fallen asleep in the middle of his very important phone call - which explained why Castle had come downstairs to find her - and that Jolin's team had made the discovery of the empty box. Jolin herself had not shown her face, and internally, she and Castle and their people who knew, they weren't entirely certain that the bodyguards were Collective at all.

There was now some dispute over whether or not this was a Collective move. Unsanctioned was the word being tossed around.

Hunt had woken up and was playing a game with James - hiding a toy truck behind his back until the baby grunted and went to find it. James wasn't giggling with him or anything, but it was better than it had been. Kate was on the laptop, keeping updated, running search strings, contacting Mitch when Castle didn't immediately get back to her. She had to - just to stay awake, keep with it. She was _not_ falling asleep.

This was her job. Ever since Castle had fallen through a lake and suffered a near-fatal bout with pneumonia, Beckett had taken over every aspect of the regimen. He was her husband, he was everything that was _good_ in her life, the redeeming nature of their love made any of this possible, so of course she was going to know every single last scrap of information about that damn program.

She had the tendency to panic if she thought about losing him. God, just _remembering _that day, listening to his chest sucking at air, his lungs collapsing, feeling him leave her - she couldn't do that again. She fucking could not do that.

She'd brought the Collective to their city; Jolin to their doorstep. She had to be better than this but she wasn't. It was true - she had only begun rebuilding. A training session still had her flat out; Castle had demoted her to fucking _half-days._ This wasn't a fucking joke; she had to be better than this.

They needed her to be better.

But she wasn't.

"You look like you're gonna do something stupid over there," Hunt said into her silence.

Beckett lifted her head, stared at him a moment before her thoughts reorganized. "I'm just monitoring. Collating data."

"You look exhausted." He was offering James the toy truck, then taking it away again before the boy could touch it.

She hated that game; she despised withholding for no good reason. "Well, thanks," she snarked, "you do too."

"I got stabbed. What's your excuse?"

"I died," she muttered, shifting in the chair.

Hunt's fingers released the truck and it clattered to the floor. James stared up at Colin. He scraped a hand over his face. "I know. I was there. I was riding in the back of the ambulance with you when you flat-lined." James went crawling after the truck, but when he got it, he brought it to her instead, as if for safe-keeping.

Kate put the laptop on the end table and dragged her son up into the chair with her. "What do you want me to say, Colin? Thank you? Thank you for saving my life."

"You already said thank you. I want you to not - not do whatever stupid thing is running through your head."

"Oh, if Castle could see you now," she sighed. James handed her the truck with a shy smile, ducked his head back against her chest when she took it. "Nothing stupid is running through my head."

Running. _Running._ She could lead Jolin away from her family, her husband and son who actually _were _the program. She had brought the Collective here, let them follow her away again. Like that time in the embassy, when she and Hunt had been a decoy incursion to mask the sounds of Castle's more subtle approach. They could be a decoy now.

"When you're feeling up to it," she said slowly, "you should go back to London. As soon as possible actually. Get you out of this."

"Worried for me? Don't be. I'm not interested in getting caught up in family drama."

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't - on some level - want it," she said. James reached for the truck and - unlike Hunt - she gave it right back to him. James clasped it to his chest, but he didn't giggle for her either. There seemed no lasting joy in getting it so easily, but then again, there was no frustration.

Hunt grunted. "Bloody hell, maybe I do want it. But you don't need to be worried about shipping me off when you've got bigger problems. All right?"

"They know who you are, remember? The security agent that night at the embassy arrested you. The Hulk. He put your information into their computer system - and I bet that's how they knew you were following them here. You shouldn't be in New York either." She had used _Hunt_ as her decoy inside the embassy party. She had gotten Hunt arrested to cover up her husband's trail inside those secure-clearance back-rooms.

Maybe she could do that again.

"Don't stick me on a plane until the bleeding stops, would ya?"

"You're stitched up," she shrugged. "If you need a flying buddy, Colin, then that can be arranged." When the time came - and it would come, she had no doubt - she could be that buddy.

She could be the decoy. Drag Hunt's ass back to London where he belonged - and take Jolin and her hound dogs with her.

She had to keep the Collective away from her family. She had to _fix _this.

James mewled in her lap and pitched the truck over his head; it hurtled through the air and smacked into the far wall, making everyone jump.

Her heart was pounding strangely; her pulse too fast. James turned in her arms, gripping her shirt with both fists, and buried his head against her chest.

She wrapped him in her arms even as Colin stared at the kid. "Scared me too, little wolf," she whispered, touching her lips to the top of his head. "It's okay. But we don't throw things. Might get someone hurt."

He didn't seem consoled.

* * *

Castle hesitated at the back of the van, rapped his knuckles once on the door. It popped open for him and he crawled inside, sinking down into an offered chair. He shook the hand of the man behind the headphones, and he got a nod in return.

The NSA's surveillance team was comprised of two men - that was all. One manning the video, one at the audio board, and now Castle sitting between them. The video man gestured to the monitors set up before them.

"You're looking at every entrance and exit into this fleabag motel. Plus we got a man on the same floor, two doors down - closest we could get. He sent a snake through the crawl space above their heads, and we got eyes here."

He tapped the monitor and Castle leaned in with interest, watching the video play. It was a poor angle, but he assumed the cable had gone through the ceiling's light fixture, perhaps even a dismantled, not-up-to-code sprinkler system. The right half of the video was obscured by a strip of dingy white metal, but the left half depicted a bed, gold shag carpet, and a narrow table by a window.

A woman sat on what had to be the edge of the bed, her legs in view.

"View of the window is where?" Castle asked. Her legs were in view. Female legs, for sure, no other occupant.

"This is the window from directly across the street," the man said, tapping the third monitor over.

Sure enough, a person - the round of her head, nothing else. Castle shifted his gaze to the other monitors, checking the exits. One in the back, clouds of steam from the next-door laundry obscuring the alley every now and then. Not good. The front door was a narrow, heavy security door that seemed to catch some people off-guard with its heft. Might be good, might go against them. Jolin - or her security - had chosen very well.

There was an alley, the street they were on, a side street that was only one way where the window looked over. A fire escape that went straight down to the one-way street. The roof was a garbled mess of HVAC units and whirring vents, but the NSA guys had done their job - the camera up there actually panned left and right at the keyboard's command.

"Okay," Castle said slowly, his eyes coming back to the woman sitting on the bed. "And her bodyguards? The security team?"

"All accounted for. Two at the cemetery where they attempted an exhumation and got an empty casket, apparently - you know something about that?"

"Might."

The audio guy gave a grunt, flickering look, and Castle realized there'd been a bet on it.

"All right. The other three - one is in the lobby as lookout - two are out digging through military records at the Research Room at State Archives."

"Huh," Castle muttered, watching the monitors. State Archives would be anything _before_ the Gulf War. He could be wrong about that, but the thought that Jolin was digging through state archives for military excursions made him nervous. His father's whole program had been, for decades, confined within the grasp of the military - and its proficient paperwork. Hell, even he and Kate had found stored documents in the Congo.

"What's the plan, Agent Castle?"

"We sit on her," he said calmly. "Observation only, gentleman."

"Really?" the audio man scoffed. "_You?"_

"What does that mean?" Castle growled, swiveling his head to the guy.

The video man sat forward, pushing towards them. "Hey, look, he didn't mean anything by that."

"Sure he did," Castle said easily.

"I just meant - that's not usually your style. Someone comes after you, we all know what you do. Especially that wife of yours."

Castle turned a dead look on the audio operator; the guy went pale and swallowed hard, ducking his head.

"No - no offense, man. Agent Castle. Sir."

Castle sat back in his chair, offered them nothing. Neither of them.

His wife wasn't any of their damn business.

* * *

Castle answered his phone on the first buzz in his pocket. "Mitchell. What have you got?"

"I'm parked about... a block down from you. Piggy-backed your wireless network with my man Walker here and we're in."

"You're in where?"

"Her email."

"The _fuck_ you say."

"Uh-huh, I say. Walker is the bomb."

"Do not use that phrase ever again, Mitchell."

A chuckle on the other end of the line. "She's using a secure network, but it's the same king of trojan horse shit that you had Ryan doing when we were trying to get Beckett freed. So, anyway, we're in, and Walker's looking through her laptop. She must be using it."

Castle growled. "She is. I can see it on the monitor."

"So long as she's up and using her email, we can move through the meta-data."

"Well, fuck," he whispered. The NSA agents were giving him looks but he wasn't sharing this shit. "Keep me updated."

"Aye-aye, sir."

Castle hung up on Mitch and tapped his phone against his chin. It was late, nearly seven, and he'd been sitting here on his ass watching a woman barely move an inch, like she was so severely injured it had been a miracle she'd even gotten this far.

Or.

It was the _or_ that'd had him here so long.

But he had other things he had to get accomplished tonight - like putting into motion a back-up plan to save his family.

Castle brought his phone down and texted Esposito.

* * *

When the knock came to the door, Castle was the first one up to open the back of the van. Esposito gave the scene a once-over and then he took Castle's out-stretched hand and allowed himself to be hauled up.

"Oh, hell," the audio man muttered.

Apparently Espo's reputation proceeded him as well.

Castle smiled grimly at Beckett's brother - of a sort - and nodded to the now-empty folding chair. "There's your spot. They'll show you the set-up. You text me the second she moves, and you send a clip of the video."

"What video?" Esposito gruffed. The man had gotten bigger in the last year - broader, more muscular. He'd gotten back together with Lanie, from what Castle had heard, but he was weight-lifting like a beast. He hoped the asshole wasn't doing steroids.

Or the regimen. Holy fuck. He was gonna have to get Beckett to talk to Esposito, just in case. There was always the chance. Would Espo listen to Black if the man had tried to approach him? Holy shit.

Castle pointed to the monitor. "Video of La Lune the moment she moves."

"All right, all right," Espo said. "I got it."

"They'll bring you up to speed," he said, hopping off the back bumper and to the ground once more. He shut the doors on the men and shifted on his feet, glancing down the street.

Time to get ahead of this thing.

* * *

Castle hunted through the listings until he found what he was looking for, and then he headed off down the platform towards the escalator. He took the steps two at a time and hurried up into the dark night, his ears attuned to the least sound, eyes roving.

He had an hour before he needed to be home - in time for bath, though he wanted to make dinnertime.

Might not happen if his contact didn't show.

The night was muggy, end of July sitting heavy on the city, the security lamps casting a dull light to the sidewalk. Spanish Harlem was eclectic and beautiful in the daylight, but rather haunting past sunset, buildings like garish ghosts.

The street was littered with confetti, like there'd been a parade this morning, and the passing of cars all afternoon had worn down the colors into wrinkled, limp scraps. Castle crossed at the corner and came up on his old apartment building - from the back, as per his usual entry.

Once inside, it didn't take long to mount the empty stairwell and find his sole apartment. Still furnished like it'd been nearly four years ago, when he'd appropriated it from John Black. The cameras and surveillance equipment had been gutted out - Castle had done that himself - and the plaster had never been repaired again.

He knew the CIA still maintained the residence as a safe house; it was why he'd asked his contact here.

When Castle opened the door, the man was already inside.

"Papi," he greeted Castle warmly, rising from his spot in the lone chair. Castle came forward and embraced the older guy, a native of the neighborhood who had been Castle's caretaker for the place when he was gone. A mixture of heritage, Alfonso had a faintly exotic look about the eyes and mouth that gave him a distinct advantage in the industry.

"Not your Papi," Castle warned him, shaking his head.

"Yeah, but you somebody's," Alfonso said.

Castle went still. "This isn't common knowledge," he said carefully.

"No, man, not common knowledge. But I know your documents guy, and I heard it in your voice when you called."

"That can be heard in a person's voice?"

"You sound - concerned," Alfonso shrugged.

"And what do I normally sound like?"

"Man, before? Before you always sounded steady. Like a rock. Unflinching, sure, but cold as ice. Nothing got to you. This? This got to you."

"Give me the damn package already," Castle growled, ignoring Alfonso's assessment. He didn't need a fucking psych eval from the local bodega-owner turned CIA snitch.

"Here you go, Ricardo, all there." Alfonso shrugged as he handed over the carrier bag, but Castle didn't do him the disservice of opening it. He knew he'd find the weapons he'd asked for, plus the extra documents from their mutual friend.

"I need you to keep an eye on this place," Castle said finally. He was Richard Rodgers to the world, not Rick Castle the CIA agent, but anything was possible. "Might be a woman who comes looking."

"Por que?"

"Because of me," Castle put it simply. "I got something they want."

"Anything to do with your own papi?"

"Something like that," he muttered, turning for the door. "Let's just say that bastard has fucked over a lot of people. At some point in time, they all come looking."

Alfonso would stay here, as was their usual procedure for a face-to-face like this. But instead of sitting back down to wait, Alfonso came after him, snagged him at the door. "You might want to get in touch with him."

Castle froze. "Fucking hell," he scraped out.

Alfonso shook his head, lifted both hands. "Gotta do what you gotta do."

"Fucking hell, Alfonso, tell me you didn't."

"Just pieces."

He could strangle the man. He could drop him right here, no muss, no fuss, no one would ever look too closely at the shooting death of a man in Spanish Harlem. Spread a little coke dust on the floor, over Alfonso's hands, and that's all it would be - and one conduit leading back to his father would be permanently closed.

Problem was - one of many conduits. Where one closed, another would spring up, and at least this was one Castle knew. Alfonso had, by saying something, given Castle a kind of gift. It was a matter of trust, but he had killed men for less, and for more.

Bigger problem was going home to his son knowing he'd killed a man who had trusted him.

Fuck.

"You tell him the names on the papers?" he husked.

"Naw, man. I don't roll on you. I just inform a little, here and there. Enough to keep that bastard off my back."

Castle swallowed. He couldn't be a hundred percent trusting here, not any more. Not when it came to his father. He'd have to change the names by hand - _if _he could. It'd been ten years or more since he'd forged documents alone.

"Shit, Alfonso, you have made my life only harder - not easier. Consider my debt paid," he said wearily, withdrawing the money from his back pocket and peeling of the one hundreds in front of him.

He shorted Alfonso a thousand and he knew the man had seen it.

Once, twenty years ago, he and Alfonso had been staring down the barrel of an AK-47 in this very neighborhood, together, side by side like brothers - or at least uncle and nephew, given the age difference. The slick drug enforcer with the gun had said _you can either make my life easier, or you can make it harder. _

They'd chosen harder - gotten a beating for it until Castle could wrestle free and overpower the fucker.

Alfonso would understand the meaning, know that Castle couldn't be betrayed again. Not for money, not for the fucking loyalty his father demanded at an exorbitant cost. Bullying tactics. Castle wasn't going to be that kind of man, but he wasn't above letting Alfonso believe he still could be - new father himself or no.

Alfonso was silent as Castle walked out the door, his bag weighted with the heavy armament he'd procured.

Time to dig in.

He was _not_ calling his father.

* * *

"Whoa, you okay?"

"You shouldn't be standing up," Kate snapped, jerking her arm away from Hunt's grip.

"And maybe you shouldn't either," Hunt said, but he released her arm.

"Just - go somewhere, Colin, before you pull out your stitches."

He narrowed his eyes at her but retreated only as far as the kitchen table, sinking down into a chair.

She ignored him, bending over and scrounging another pot from the cabinet. They'd been put away completely disorganized, which wasn't like Castle at all (he was the one who did the dishes, the laundry, even the damn vacuuming; what the hell did she ever do?) but she found what she was looking for.

Kate settled the pan on the stove with far less clatter than she wanted and turned for the fridge. At the noise, James came running from the dining room where she'd put up the baby gate to pen him in. He lifted his hands to her and she bent down and picked him up.

He immediately wormed down against her chest, laying his cheek to the top of her shoulder. She nuzzled her nose into the crease of his neck and blew him a kiss, made pleasantly happy by his love.

"JP, what's made you so squishy?" she murmured. "You're such a cuddler today."

"Mama."

"And I love it, but I've got to make dinner. Or start something that Daddy can finish. Be cool, Jay, and hang out for me."

James gave a little sigh and lifted his head, leaned out of her arms to be let down. She set his feet on the floor but she found herself swaying again, faintly horrified by her exhaustion. James turned sharply and clung to her jeans, face upturned, as if he'd changed his mind.

She put a hand to the counter to steady herself, nudged him with her knee. "Move along, wolf. I'll trip on you."

Hunt was still watching her from the kitchen table, but he slid a foot out and tried to hook James towards him. The boy grunted and threw Colin a sour look, avoiding the man's attempt to herd him away. Kate dropped her hand to the top of James's head, glanced at Colin.

"Maybe you should just... leave him alone for now."

Colin's face flushed and he sat back, avoiding her eyes. Kate immediately felt like a bitch for saying it, but it was clear that James wasn't happy with the new person in his home.

"James," she said softly, tugging on the soft shell of his ear. He growled at her like Sasha growled, knocking his head into her thigh. She chuckled and tugged until he tilted his face up to her. "James. You be nice to Uncle Colin."

"Oh, fuck," Colin muttered from the kitchen table. "I'm his damn _uncle_."

"Uck!"

"Well, great," she sighed. "James, I'm burning the pot black. Be nice to Daddy's brother. You need all the family you can get."

James didn't look convinced, but he let go of her jeans and ran off towards the dining room again, back to his toys and the dog, she hoped. She glanced at Colin and saw him slumped over the table, forehead on his folded arms.

He ought to be lying down on the couch, not sitting up, but she figured the less she interacted with him, the better.

A plane ride together was going to be so damn awkward. _Painful._ And not just because of what Hunt was, but because she'd be leaving her family behind to keep them safe. Leaving them, another trip overseas, her son calling for her in the night but she wouldn't be there.

"Mama!"

She turned, realized too late she was standing with the fridge open, cold air washing over her, the burner on but nothing cooking.

James barreled into her legs and she caught him, the fridge door swinging shut while she hunched over her son. He lifted a solemn face to her and raised his fisted hand, holding out his toy for her.

It was the elephant he slept with.

"Okay, wolf," she murmured, taking the lovey from him. "I get it. Let's go cuddle in the chair." She knelt down to pick him up, and James immediately curled against her, drawing his knees up, hooking his toes in the waistband of her jeans, his arms pressed between them.

She stood slowly, her back knocking against the counter when she stumbled, her boy so heavy at her chest. Hunt had stood as well, his face washed out and bloodless, but his eyes intent on her.

She was going to send them both away. Colin Hunt, who was putting them at risk by being here, and herself, Kate Beckett, who had put them in danger in the first place by shooting Dick Coonan.

Her mother's murderer. That was where it had all started.

Castle had tried to stop her. He'd been right when he had fought her in that apartment in Spanish Harlem, wrestled her to the bed and left her handcuffed there. He'd been right to keep her from it.

Not only had she gotten Castle stabbed in the back by Coonan, but she'd exposed their family to the Collective.

This case. Fuck. Would it always haunt her?


	3. Chapter 3

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

She could smell the ground turkey browning in the pan, but she had set it on low; she had some time. Colin Hunt had collapsed back into the couch and soon fallen asleep, while she and James were cuddled into the armchair. She knew there was something Colin wasn't telling them, _something_ that made him antsy and irritated, but she was too tired to get at it, to tease it out of him.

She was just too tired.

James's little fingers played with her hair, his head coming up from time to time as if he was looking around, and then curling back up with her. She stroked her fingers around and around the shell of his ear, her knees drawn up at his back. She had tried to put him down twice to start the spaghetti sauce, but he had clung to her.

And, okay, yes, she might be clinging to him as well.

Kate tilted her head back and closed her eyes, the warm weight of her baby at her chest, and she tried to memorize this moment. The snuffle of his breathing, the restless wriggle of his body in sudden twitches and then the settling down again. He had a bump on his forehead under the soft fall of dark hair, probably from running around today.

"Mama," he murmured.

He liked to call her name today. He wasn't much for talking, though they often caught him babbling to himself in his bed after a nap. But this was a kind of claiming, she thought, calling her name so that he had her attention.

She didn't mind, not today. It wasn't something she wanted to encourage in the future, and Colin Hunt must think James was a brat, but she'd indulge her son to give him some security.

When she had to leave-

The house alarm whined and clicked off.

James's head went up, eyes open wide and looking first at the door and then at her. "Dada?"

"Yeah, that's Daddy coming home," she smiled. "I hope. Could be Mitch. But let's go with Daddy."

James gripped her shirt and scrambled down, running for the door before she could stop him. She had to struggle up to try and catch him, and then the door opened to Castle.

He did a double-take but squatted down and grabbed James in one arm, stood again as he came inside with the boy. James patted his chest and beamed at Kate, as if proud of what he'd brought home.

"Yeah, there's Daddy." She stepped into the entry but Castle came straight to her, wrapped his free arm around her neck. He dragged her into him, kissed her temple.

"You look tired, love."

"Would everyone stop telling me that?" she muttered.

"Sorry. Not sorry," he rumbled at her ear. James was squirming around between them and Castle stepped back, releasing her. "What do I smell?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Dinner. Damn. I hope it didn't burn-"

"No, not burned. Not yet." He gave her a crooked smile and glanced past her shoulder towards the couch. "He - uh - okay?"

"Asleep, I think," she said, shrugging. Castle nodded and shifted James to his other side.

"Come with me? I'll fill you in while I finish dinner."

She followed him into the kitchen through the dining room, gripping his arm as she stepped over the baby gate after him. Sasha greeted him just inside the kitchen, her tail wagging, her patience at his delay just beginning to falter. Castle stooped down and rubbed her ears, setting James on his feet as well.

Kate moved to the kitchen counter beside the oven, tipped the lid on the pot to look inside. The meat was fine, actually, so she hadn't burned dinner yet.

Castle stood and went to the sink, opening the faucet to wash his hands. James ran through the kitchen back to the dining room, Sasha - for once - not chasing after him but dancing close to Castle at the sink. Kate lifted her foot and rubbed her toes across Sasha's back, getting a look for it from the dog before their wolf went back to begging Castle for attention.

"Rick, I'll do this. Play with Sasha."

He gave her a look. "She just wants turkey meat," he said, shaking his head as he flicked water off his fingers. He dried with the clean towel and came back to her at the counter, moving her aside. "Were you thinking chili or spaghetti?"

"Spaghetti. Too hot outside for chili," she murmured.

He was nodding and already moving for the pantry to collect ingredients.

"You said you were gonna fill me in?"

"I've got Espo watching Diane Jolin's place with NSA's surveillance team," he started. Sounded like he'd been holding back for her. She folded her arms and waited on him. On the counter, Castle deposited organic canned tomato sauce that they'd bought at the farmers' market only a few weeks ago.

"Italian spices?" she asked, reaching for the cabinets. At his nod, she pulled down the old stand-bys - oregano and basil - and added rosemary and celery seed, two extras that Castle had started putting into their sauce.

"We're still waiting on video of Jolin," he told her, "but her crew has been gathering records from the Military Archives here in New York."

"Coonan?"

"Yeah, and three others. But not the whole team, which gives us hope."

She nodded, but her heart was still sick. "Only a matter of time."

"Why?" he said.

"Why what?" she said, staring over at him.

"Why's it only a matter of time? Nothing out there to connect Coonan to any of those other guys."

"But you do connect to me," she said quietly.

"But she's not going to have the military connection to me. Coonan, Doyle, Collins, and Poe. That's it, Kate. Their records have been scrubbed clean so many times not even I could find the right way up."

"But I'm the one who-"

"Who _killed_ him, as a police detective in self-defense, about twenty years after the program."

"The police detective married to _you_," she hissed.

"Me," he reminded her, nudging her hip with his as he emptied tomato sauce into the second pan. "Your accountant husband who was raised by his actress mother, led a bohemian lifestyle which prevented a lot of records, but who was never in the Persian Gulf with Dick Coonan."

She closed her mouth, her frown pressing deep. He kept straightening things out; she found tangles and knots, and he made it smooth so easily, with just a few words.

"Kate, the connections are there for us, of course they are - we can fill in the gaps. But the information that Jolin has found - according to her emails-"

"_Emails_," she gasped, slapping his arm. "You never _said_ you had email access."

He winked. "No? Pretty sure I did."

"Castle," she complained, groaning as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. She felt him chuckle and his hand come up to cup the back of her head. "It's not funny."

"It's a little funny. Plus, I thought you were reading the alerts."

"I was. James got squishy."

"Squishy?" he laughed.

"He's squishes all down against me. Fits himself into me."

Castle laughed harder, squeezed the back of her neck. "You're hilarious, babe."

"And you've just been freaking me out for the last-"

"You're not freaked, are you?" he murmured. "We've got a handle on this. It's going to be just fine."

She lifted her head to glare at him, a strange panic welling up in her guts at the thought that Castle didn't find this as important as she did, that he wasn't taking this seriously.

"It's not fine," she said. "Diane Jolin knows me as the original human experiment for the regimen, but it's not me, Castle. It's _you_. It's our son-"

He gripped her shoulders, his eyes staring straight into her own. "Kate. Kate, slow down. Honey, we know that, but she _doesn't._ She thinks Coonan and that military group were it, that they were an unmitigated disaster."

She chewed on her lower lip, tried to find the center truth in the gnarled facts of this case. "But Castle. She knows me from Paris. She saw my face in Paris, called me by name. John Black said that he told her it was me who damaged him, and when she came to talk to me - she wanted to warn me about the regimen. She thinks it's me."

"But Kate, that doesn't mean she knows anything about _me_," he insisted. His fingers gripped her shoulders a little tighter. "Hey. Stop. Please, just stop. You look like you're - losing it here, Kate."

She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "We should - we need to send Colin Hunt home."

"I - well - yes. I don't want him here. But. You want to send him home-home? As in an international flight?"

"Yes," she said, dropping her hands.

He stared at her.

_And I could go with him._

She opened her mouth to say it, but the words wouldn't escape her. If she said it, then he knew and he'd stop her. He'd stop her and she had to leave before Jolin destroyed everything she loved.

Everything she loved always-

"Kate," he husked. "What's going on in your head?"

She was panicking. This was a panic attack. Her heart was thumping, sweat pricked her palms, but the usual intensity wasn't there in the physical symptoms. No, it was all in her brain's death spirals.

"I was going to leave you," she admitted, lifting horrified eyes to his.

His face went white. "You what?"

"Not leave you but leave you both, leave, I was going to - leave. I - oh, God. Castle." She twined her arms around his neck and pressed her face against him, shaking with the release of having spoken it out loud.

"Leave?"

"Just to - get her away from you both," she whispered, eyes closing. "That was so stupid. I'm so sorry. I wouldn't - no, fuck, I _would_. That's the problem. God, I just-"

"Kate, I was going to leave you first."

She jerked back, arms falling from him. He looked sick.

She felt sick. "Leave me?"

Castle bowed his head, hands in fists.

"Mama?"

Kate turned blindly towards her son, but he found her before she could even orient, all of her heart still on the kitchen floor at Castle's feet.

James crawled up into her arms even as she bent down for him; she pressed her cheek to the top of his head, standing up with him.

"It was a stupid idea," Castle's voice cracked. "A fucking stupid idea and I'm sorry. Kate. I'm sorry, but don't you leave me either."

* * *

He showed her the duffle bag.

They stood on the street with the back door of the Land Rover open to the night and James curled in his arms like a lamprey - squishy indeed - and he showed her the duffle bag.

She was still shaking.

"What - did you think - what were you going to be doing with all this firepower?" she whispered.

"Take her down. Quietly."

"This isn't quietly."

He cleared his throat, feeling James's fingers at his neck as if to catch the swallow. "I apologize. Quietly was imprecise. Unofficially."

"No. You can't."

"I - see that now." He released one hand from the boy and caught her fingers, tugging until they laced together, forcing that connection. "We both - are thinking along the same lines, Kate."

"You were going to murder someone," she hissed.

"You were going to leave me."

She bit her lip. The night was muggy with summer heat; she was only in jeans and a t-shirt, sandals she'd shoved on at their front door. She looked heartbreaking and young and he'd done this to her.

"It's my fault that Jolin is here. She-"

Before Kate could open her mouth to claim her own share of the responsibility for this, his phone alert went off. They both fell silent, but he didn't let go of her hand, couldn't let go of James.

"Would you?" he murmured.

She used her free hand to reach into his back pocket for his phone, their bodies close and brushing, points of contact, the baby quiet between them. James was laidback and he was solemn and stubborn, but this was new for him. He felt limp and - squishy. He really did. Melding his body to his father's.

Castle didn't know what that meant, except that they were affecting their kid.

Kate pulled out his phone. "Espo. He sent you a video."

"Play it," he said grimly, his mind snapping back to the case at hand.

Kate glanced to the open duffle bag. "We are not leaving that out on the street. I don't care how good this car's security system is - that should be in the panic room."

"Fine. Grab it and lock it up for me? We'll play the video in the house."

She patted James's back, a brushing kiss against the boy's cheek as she moved towards the car. He watched her repack his arsenal inside the duffle; he didn't miss the moment she found the passports.

"Two."

"Kate, I-"

"You were going to send me away with James."

"Yes."

"You knew you'd be in trouble."

"Yes. If - sometimes this is what it takes."

"This isn't how we live our life together," she said fiercely, rounding on him with both passports in her hand. She slapped them against his chest. "We don't do this."

"You already said it, Kate. She knows _you_. And you're my life. She knows you."

Her expression said it all. He knew, and she knew, and it was just how they were. About each other. It was that stupid short story about the watch and the combs and selling everything just to make a gift of life to the other one.

"Take James inside," she said finally. "I've got this."

He stepped back up to the sidewalk, watching her as she moved, his phone sticking out of her back pocket, her hair sliding against her cheeks. He didn't take James inside; he waited on her. They did this together.

When she had the duffle bag strapped to her back and the car alarm was silently activated, she turned and saw him still standing there. Instead of saying something about his disobedience, instead of mentioning the fact that they were the same in this - it went unspoken now anyway - she reached into her back pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Right here, then?"

"Please," he murmured. If it showed him what he suspected, he wanted those weapons - and Kate - close at hand.

He had it programmed so that her thumbprint unlocked his phone, and she entered the passcode after that for second user access. Her hair had fallen forward and hidden her face, the short strands often dislodging from behind her ear. Castle held James, the boy they were going to end up nicknaming Squishy after today, he could feel it coming, and he softly rubbed his son's back.

Kate played the video, stepping in against his side to angle the phone towards him as well. He watched as the frames resolved and moved forward.

Diane Jolin came walking out of the front doors of the motel, striding forward like she'd never been touched. Her jacket was blood red and her lips were two thin slices of red, lipstick slightly smudged at one corner; her hair was a tight knot at the nape of her neck, shot through with silver.

"Her hair's white," Kate gasped.

"_That's _what troubles you?" Castle growled, lifting a hand from James's back to grab the phone. "Beckett, she's walking."

"She's walking," she repeated dumbly. "Her coat isn't buttoned correctly. Her lipstick is - crooked. That day on the bench in Paris is - something of a blur - but this wasn't her. Her hair wasn't so..."

"She's _walking_, Kate. I shot her through the knees not more than a few months ago, and she's walking."

"She's... lost it," Kate blinked. "She's crazy. Oh, God, Castle. She's taken the regimen."

Exactly. "She's taken the regimen."

* * *

"That's what I was afraid of," he grimaced.

Kate followed him back inside the house, heard the locks and alarm click on. James's head perked up from Castle's shoulder, his eyes following their trek through the dining room and back into the kitchen.

The spaghetti sauce was bubbling; Kate reached for their son and leaned against the counter with him, waiting on Castle.

"It's good though, right?" he said finally.

"What's good."

"She's crazy, and anyone can tell. There was chatter about her doing this unsanctioned, and if she injected herself with whatever prototype they've got - clearly it's healed her gunshot wounds - but it's also put her right off the reservation." He was stirring the sauce and moving it off the burner, but he gave her a quick look over his shoulder for confirmation.

"Maybe," she admitted.

"That's good for us," he promised. "She sounds crazy, looks crazy - therefore whatever truth she digs up has to be looked at by the Collective with a fair amount of skepticism. In fact, they may think she's gone so far around the bend-"

"That she's not reliable," Kate finished. Her heartbeat had resumed something of a more normal pace, but her arms were shaking with weariness - and now that she thought about it, probably the remnants of that silent panic attack. She moved to put James down but he clung to her shirt, tried to climb back up.

She gave up and sat on the kitchen floor with him. James scrambled back into her arms and sucked on his bottom lip, giving her a look before he put his head back down on her shoulder.

"We make him sad," she whispered.

"What?"

She glanced up. "Do you think the Collective is ignoring her? Or will they send people after her to clean up her messes?"

"Probably clean it up. Which means we need to be clear of it. So yes, I would like to get you and James out of here, but only as far as I'm willing to go."

"All of us," she insisted.

"All of us," he insisted right back. His hand came to the top of her skull, fingers tapping.

She tilted her head against the cabinets to look up at him. "Where can we go? I don't want to lead Jolin or the Collective to any of our places. Not my dad's cabin either."

"No, I don't either."

"Shit, his apartment is public record as being _ours_. Is there-"

"I have a team on him, remember? We talked about this."

"Oh, good. I remember the talk, just didn't know if it got done. But we can't hide out here - not inside the city limits. Not while Jolin's hunting through archives and-"

"You're right," Castle said easily. "And I had a place in mind."

"Share with the class?"

"I - um - bought you something. Kinda huge."

Her jaw dropped; she stared up at him. "What. What's kinda huge?"

"It's an island," he winced.

"Holy fuck. Rick Castle."

"Uck!"

Kate startled, glancing at her son. She'd forgotten for a moment that he was here. Not that she hadn't known she was sitting on the floor of her kitchen with her baby in her arms, but just his - presence - had softened to something indistinct. But now he was scrambling off her lap and trying to get to his feet, a little unsteady, so she reached out and helped him catch his balance.

He ran off.

"Where's he going?"

"I don't know," she murmured, still stunned by _island_. But immediately after that, she heard the sharp grunt of a man in pain, and then the quiet words of Colin Hunt speaking to her son.

Castle was already jerking after them, so she got to her feet more slowly, waiting until Castle came back through with James in one arm and shoving Colin ahead of him, Sasha dogging their heels and looking about as fierce as her husband.

"Castle," she chided tonelessly. "He's wounded. For us. Don't push him around just because you can."

"He was eavesdropping. James found him out."

Colin snarled. "How the bloody hell do you expect me to find out anything going on?"

Kate rubbed her forehead, saw Castle setting James down. "We'll tell you what you need to know."

"That doesn't work for me."

"Well, you're at my mercy," she said pointedly. "So tough shit."

Hunt glared at her. "You're beautiful, but you're frustrating as hell."

Castle cuffed the back of his head and Hunt staggered forward, but she had this stupid giddy urge to laugh. Instead she reached out and caught Castle's free hand to keep it a little more occupied.

"If you two are through abusing me," Colin muttered, rubbing the back of his head and easing his good side against the counter. "I heard you coming up with a plan. And I say get the hell out of this city. Island sounds really nice about now."

"It's not for you," Castle growled.

"Castle," she said quietly. His eyes came back to her. She gestured to the boy and then to Hunt. "Colin, can you pack some essentials from his room?"

"Kate-"

She quieted her husband with a look, turned back to Hunt. "A whole bag of diapers. Clothes. You'll find a go-bag in his closet already packed, so just add more of all of that. Castle, I need your help down here."

"Look, you guys - we _all _\- need to get away from Jolin. She's crazy. She is _bloody bonkers_, and nothing is going to protect you from her." He gestured to his side. "How do you think I got this?"

"We're handling it," Castle growled.

Kate kept her gaze steady on Hunt. "The sooner we're packed, the sooner we leave, right? So. Please go upstairs and help me." It wasn't really a request.

Hunt looked like he knew she was trying to get rid of him, but he sighed and slunk off. When the kitchen was theirs again, Kate shifted closer to her husband, let her smile widen, light up her face.

"You bought me an island?"

"A very small one," he muttered, his eyes sliding towards the doorway where Hunt had disappeared.

Kate put her arm around his neck, folding herself into his body and James's, stroking the soft hair at the nape of Castle's neck. "Babe. You bought me an _island._"

"It's a - gift," he said, his eyes coming back to her. "It was supposed to be a surprise. Romantic."

"A gift? For what?"

"For James's birthday," he husked. "For not dying. For being here so that October 17th is a day we celebrate instead of wish had never happened."

"Oh, God."

"Sorry, I'm sorry. That's not very romantic at all."

She shook her head and pressed her mouth to his, silencing him a moment. When he had subsumed into her kiss, she pulled back just enough to kiss his nose, the soft place under his eye. "It's romantic to me. Heartbreaking. But very sweet. You bought me an island."

"With a little house on it. You said one time maybe you'd go to the beach with me."

"Oh, Rick."

"Will you?"

"With you? Anywhere. Anywhere at all."

* * *

They ate dinner fast, in between getting ready, though Castle had managed to get Kate to sit down at the table with James for a few minutes. She had watched the kid chew on meatballs with that wide-eyed wonder on his face, and Castle had gone up and down from the basement, Sasha following at his heels.

Kate had looked better after that time with James.

Hunt had been put to work, in his limited capacity, but Castle expected to ship the man off with one of Mitch's guys as soon as they possibly could. When James finished eating, Castle came back in and cleaned him up, and then he took him off his mother's hands, unwilling to have Kate over-extend herself.

He carried James with him as he packed, tucking underwear - Kate's, soft, they always seemed to run out of hers for some reason - into a backpack underneath the ammunition. Castle remembered that when they had done assignments here and there in Prague and Rome and Minsk, all leading up to the big mission in Russia, her hair and skin had smelled like gunpowder all the time, from her spare clothes being packed in with their weapons, and there was something erotic about it now.

The baby laid his head against Castle's shoulder, squirming, but he couldn't let the kid down in here. Not with pieces of equipment going into bags, his own weapon was at his back in the snug holster. Fuck, baby-proofing the house was complicated with two CIA agents.

He felt a sharp crunch and glanced down to find James was gnawing on his collarbone through his shirt. "Ouch, wolf. You got teeth?"

Castle pushed his thumb into James's mouth, felt along his gums. Two in the front, at the bottom. Wow.

"Hey, Kate," he shouted. She was somewhere - packing stuff, on the phone with the team outside to coordinate their departure. Island getaway, though it was close to home, just down the coast. "Kate, come see this."

"Hang on."

He rubbed his thumb against James's gums and the baby actually cried, a pitiful sound that made Castle stop. "Sorry," he whispered, kissing the top of the boy's head.

"What is it?" she said, her voice preceding her into the room.

He turned from the bed where he was attempting to zip the duffle one-handed; she came forward and held one end for him, teamwork to get it closed. "Look in his mouth."

"He's chewing on your shirt."

"My collarbone actually. Look in his mouth."

Kate glanced at him and back to the baby, came in closer to push her fingers between his shoulder and the boy's cheek. "Is he getting teeth? I thought-" She gave a startled yelp and shook out her fingers and James started to cry. "Oh, fuck. Sorry, my fault, hush, little wolf. You're okay. I didn't expect you to bite me, that's all."

He rubbed James's back while Kate kissed his cheeks, shushing him with that soft voice; James was soothed in seconds, but he reached out for her, little whimpers.

"This isn't good," she muttered, taking the baby. "Traveling with him like this?"

"Must be bad if he's crying. That's not usually him."

"He's been squishy all day," she sighed. "I thought he was just - attuned to us. Isn't that stupid? He's just a boy."

Castle kept his mouth shut; he was absolutely not going to comment on whatever he thought might be at work inside his kid's DNA. Not right now anyway.

"Do we have any numbing agents in the supplies downstairs?"

"In the panic room?" he said, startled. "Kate. We can't _drug_ him-"

"No, the topical stuff. I rub a little on his gums."

"Can you do that to a baby?"

"Yes," she said, her lips quirking at him. "They sell baby oral gel."

"They do?"

"Promise," she hummed, shifting James again. He reached for the boy and took him back; she was too worn out for that.

"See if we do," he said, shrugging. "I'm almost through up here; I'll bring the bags down and pack the car. We'll go pick up your dad."

"Two cars," she said, insisting. "Dad and James in one."

"I don't like splitting us up."

"I don't like having my eggs all in one basket."

"What eggs?" he said, bewildered.

"Rick Castle," she muttered, rolling her eyes at him. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I - what?"

"Think it through, come back to me." She patted his chest and lifted on her toes to kiss him abruptly, and then she was gone.

Eggs in a basket? What basket? The car? If you carried the basket responsibly, didn't rush around, then the eggs would be fine. What was she talking about?

James mewled and went back to gnawing on his clavicle. Castle absently stroked his son's back and then picked up the duffle from the bed, slung it over his free shoulder.

Now to get the munitions together.

* * *

"I'll take him," she said, narrowing her eyes at her stubborn husband.

"No. You won't. Take this instead, put it between the front seats, Kate." He handed her the bag instead and she sighed, released her hold on James's arm. "Hell, this weighs more than he does."

"Yeah, but it doesn't try to squirm or bite your collarbones," Castle said, swinging James back up into his arms. True enough, James's mouth came down to start gnawing. Castle nudged her for the door.

She took her gun with her; it was that kind of feeling in their house. Colin Hunt was passed out again on the couch after she'd woken him to get him moving. He had actually fainted, Castle sneering in disdain.

_We all know you've got the biggest,_ she had muttered to him, fed up with his macho bullshit. He had turned to her, grabbed her hard, and said, _We better not all know it._

There was going to be hell to pay for her offhanded remark. Some well-deserved fierceness tonight, she was sure, though a whole island made her soft for him. Squishy as her son. Maybe she'd just take it, whatever punishment he wanted to dole out, maybe just relish it.

"Beckett, get moving, woman."

She yelled a curse cheerfully back to him and went out the front door with the heavy bag of fire power. Her phone vibrated in her pocket as she moved towards the Land Rover double parked in front of their home. At least the street was quiet since this was the last of their block. She opened the passenger door to free up a hand, answered her phone while she shoved the bag between the front seats.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you on the street?"

"Mitch?" she said, confused. He sounded like he was out of breath, running, his voice too loud. She glanced up, wondering if he was looking at her right now or if it was just the security team reporting her movements. "Mitch, where are you?"

"Coming for you. Following Jolin and her fucking goons. Oh, shit. Oh, shit."

"Mitch?" she gasped, slamming the passenger door shut and sprinting back to the front door. The security team had already materialized; Mitch must have warned them. They were yanking open her front door and Reese was dragging her inside.

"Get Echo and go," Mitchell croaked. "Fucking hell. We're pinned down."

"_What_?"

Castle appeared right before her in the entry, James in one arm, gun in the other hand, the team forming up around him. He reached out and grabbed her, pulled the phone towards his ear, her fingers still gripping it.

"Mitchell. Report."

She half-heard the status update - incoming, Jolin, nine guys (where had they all come from?) and she was already twisting out of the knot of protection and racing towards the couch.

"Hunt!" she snapped, yanking the blanket out from where she'd just tucked it around him. He burst into wakefulness with a shout and she gripped him by the shoulders. "Hunt, we have to go right now."

"Wha-"

"Right. Now. Get the fuck up."

"_Beckett_." Castle was bellowing for her; she lifted her head, realized they were the whole room apart, a whole security team between them, moving for the door. Sasha was indecisive in the middle of the living room, whining at her, ears laid back.

She set her jaw and turned back to Hunt, heard Castle cursing her but making his way back to her, completely ignoring the security team who wanted them all out of here and into cars.

"Panic room?" Castle asked with a grimace, coming to the couch and hauling Hunt up.

"We can't," she cried out. "My dad-"

"She's on her way there."

"_What_?"

"Mitch is tracking her - his lead car was firebombed. He's stuck-"

"Castle. Castle, she's going to my _dad's_?"

"She's nearly there."

"No," she choked. "No. No, I can't-"

"We're going to pick him up," Castle said fiercely. "He is _right _down the street. We are _not_ leaving him behind."

"Then get a bloody move on," Hunt said weakly. She snapped her gaze to him - he was standing.

Barely.

"Where's James?"

"With Reese and the dog. Heading for the car. I've sent half the team down to your dad's place, securing the building. It might come to a firefight, Kate. What are we doing here? You have to tell me."

Her chest was tight, but she wasn't going to panic. She was okay; they were going to make it. They would make it.

"Let's get my dad." She took a quick breath, made her decision. The Land Rover was steel-reinforced, bulletproof windows. "All of us. We don't split up."

Even James.

Oh, God.

"Let's go," Castle said tightly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

This was not turning out well. Damn it. They could _not_ get into a gunfight in the middle of New York City.

With his son in the car. His wife.

Well, his wife was immensely capable and could hold her own - there was no one else he wanted standing next to him in a complicated dance like a shoot-out - but she was still not yet up to speed.

They might need speed.

Reese was driving. James was between them in the middle seat, exact center of them and the vehicle, incongruous amidst the battle-ready bodies all around him. Sasha was at James's feet in the only space available to her, and James kept kicking his feet to try to reach her.

"Not even a year old," he muttered, rubbing a hand down his face, darting his eyes to the window as they sped the short, short hundred yards to Jim's apartment. They could walk it; they had. Jim would be fine.

"Shut up, Castle," Kate growled at him. "I do _not_ have the energy to combat guilt on top of the very real death threat hanging over us. So-"

"Guilt's on hold," he promised, reaching across the baby to grip her knee. "No guilt. We keep him safe, and there will be no guilt."

She nodded tightly, her eyes returning to the road, sentinel.

The SUV yanked around the corner, pulling up at the back of the building. Castle had his door open before they stopped, everything wordless, working with efficient supremacy. Reese manned the wheel, AK-47 strapped across his chest, James alone in the middle seat with Sasha staying put.

Beckett came up at his right side, strong side, her weapon drawn but at her thigh, their team of four spreading loosely out over the sidewalk.

His phone vibrated in the pocket of his army jacket. "Signal," he confirmed to her.

"All clear," she said, as if she had to echo it for it to be true.

He rapped his knuckles on the glass door of the back entrance, tapped out the pattern of code. After half a heartbeat, the team he'd sent on ahead - three guys - came out of the darkness (they'd shot out the bulb) and popped open the door.

"Jim," Castle called. Her father was shuffled forward and Kate gave him a fast hug, pushed him towards the back seat of the vehicle.

Reese was on their comm; he said something sharp to Beckett and Kate turned to Castle, three security personnel between them - too much, too much for that look in her eyes.

"They're pulling up out front," she croaked, nodding ahead of them.

And then he heard tires on pavement and snapped his head around. Fuck. "Back here too. Let's go, let's go. Now!"

Jim half-turned on the running board. "They said I'm supposed to take James, the dog, and get in the other car!"

"No time, we have no time-"

"Get in, Dad, right now." She came in on Castle's side, pushing her father into the back.

The advance team retreated to the building, melting away just like that; he fucking hoped it was to take up sniper positions, strategic places to provide cover for their getaway.

Castle thumped the back of Reese's seat when the doors shut. "All in, go, go, go."

The Land Rover was already churning pavement; it jumped forward in a burst of speed that had Beckett crashing into him.

Castle gripped her thigh, angling her in his lap; they were squeezed in tight. He glanced forward out the windshield and saw the SUV bearing down on them and his guts clenched.

"Oh, God," Kate husked.

He looked at her but she wasn't staring out the window. She was looking at their son.

James was laughing, absolutely delighted.

"Figures, Richard Castle," she growled. "He's your son."

* * *

"We cannot be in hot pursuit with him in here," Castle yelled.

"What other choice do we have?" she said, shoving him backwards with her elbow. Hunt was shotgun, which was a seriously stupid move now that they needed him hanging out a window and shooting back. The whole damn purpose for shotgun. "Hunt - somebody grab his belt."

Reese's arm shot out and gripped Hunt, but fuck, he was _driving_. The SUVs were making chase, but the Land Rover was much more maneuverable in the city.

"Castle-"

"I got it," he snapped back. He was leaning forward now and gripping Hunt as the man leaned out too far. Hunt fired twice at the vehicle closest as they rounded a corner. He was a fucking lousy shot. "Switch with me, Hunt. Right now. Switch."

"I can't make it back there," Hunt panted, slithering back inside the car, the heat pouring inside with him.

"Kate!"

She crawled forward, shaking with exhaustion herself already, but a surge of adrenaline had her gripping Hunt by the shirt and untangling him from the seatbelt even as Castle climbed over into the front seat.

Everyone got kicked. Sasha growled in her throat and jumped over the seat and into the back with Jim while James was giggling like this was just the best ride ever. Hunt finally slumped unconscious, half over the center console. The two security agents in back with Jim were trying to help her, and instead she crawled to the very back seat and let them move forward and the whole fucking car was playing musical chairs.

She ended up directly behind James's seat, Castle now a whole two rows ahead of her, and she slid her arm down the inside of the baby's car seat, reassuring herself of him. He leaned his head against her arm; she could feel him giggling, that desperate kind of laughter he had when they tickled him too much.

Yeah, they all were feeling it.

"Beckett!"

"Back here," she called out, lifting her head to meet Castle's eyes. He was up front and loading the fucking enormous over-the-shoulder rifle.

"No," yelled. "Up here where I can get to you."

"Let them get Hunt-"

"I said no." He went half out of the window.

She ignored him, gestured to the two security agents to finish getting Hunt situated in the seat. One did crawl back, leaving his partner to deal, and she sighed and gave in, slithered over the middle seat again.

"Mama!"

"Yeah, wolf, this is all so hilarious."

"Reese, fucking hell, hold still."

"Dada!"

"He's not angry, not really," Kate said, leaning in close and brushing her lips over her son's forehead. So damn surreal. The car hurtling through the streets. She needed her fucking seat belt. Oh, God. It just - _Castle_ needed his seat belt on. They needed to be safe, safe; this couldn't be happening.

He was right. No high speed chases with their son in the car. It made everything seem infinitely more house-of-cards precious.

The gun burst to life with a boom that made her jump, but James clapped his hands, utterly delighted with the show. She hunched close to him, her own weapon in the holster at her thigh, her eyes on the back windshield.

She had an idea.

Kate leaned forward, grabbed for Castle's belt - oops, his crotch. Got his attention. He ducked back inside the car, eyebrow raised, hair raked by the wind, his scruff of a beard like a dark shadow at his jaw. "You rang?"

She pressed her lips together, glanced to Reese. "Drive for the cabin. The woods."

"No, we're not leading them-"

"It's in my mom's family's name," she interrupted, cutting her eyes to Castle. "The Houghtons."

"The fucking _Houghtons_ \- are you fucking kidding me?" Reese spluttered, shooting them both a horrified look.

Yeah, sometimes she was too. Her Aunt Theresa, fuck-

"Beckett. The cabin isn't tenable."

"But the road is," she said quickly. "The switchback."

"Oh, hell," he husked. She saw that he knew exactly what she was thinking. But he turned to Reese, already pulling up the cabin on the internal GPS. "Reese. New destination."

They were going to make their stand.

* * *

The switchback was a hairpin turn that he and Beckett liked to fuck with on their drive to and from the cabin.

Well, without James in the car. It was a nice, sedate thrill. A roller coaster of precision timing.

Jim Beckett looked grim in the backseat, though Kate kept telling him to put his head down, keep his head down. The dog had crept forward to be close to James again. Castle tried to look confident, but the switchback driven by someone who didn't know that road _in the dark_ could be seriously problematic.

He got off another burst of gunfire as they raced for the tunnel, aiming a little high (evening in New York, fuck, don't hit anyone), Reese expertly maneuvering their Land Rover. The second security team had fallen back and finally gotten to their own car - it had been right outside Jim's building - and they were going to catch up with them on the road to the cabin.

"Kate," he called back, checking his gun's ammo load.

"Yeah."

He looked over his shoulder. She was pressed up against the carseat, the dog half in her lap; James was playing with the ends of her hair, smiling. That oral gel had to be leaking drugs into his bloodstream, had to. Why the fuck was James so happy?

Well, Kate looked good, flushed and awake and electrified. He felt it too, the way his blood sang in his veins. James had the same blood, whether it was modified or not; he was their son. And yeah, something about it - felt good.

"Are you up to driving?" he said. "You and Reese switch out?"

"Sir," Reese clipped.

He put his hand on Reese's shoulder. "You're going to be driving the other car with my son and his grandfather. You hear me?"

"I can do it," Kate spoke up. "I'll drive it. You and me in here, Castle. That's it."

"And me."

Castle glanced over to Colin Hunt with a raised eyebrow, assessing the man's condition. Slumped back, blood spotting the shirt over the bandage. "Hell, no."

"Okay," she said.

"Kate," he gritted out, glaring at her. She cut her eyes to James.

Fuck. Okay, no, he did _not_ trust Hunt in any kind of position of custody over his son. Shit.

"I'm going with you, Castle," Hunt said, sitting up a little straighter. But _he_ had eyes for Beckett.

Well, fucking hell. "Fine," Castle said. "This is going down fast. You don't hustle, you get left in the road."

"Rick-"

"It will go like this," he said louder, including Jim and the two security agents now. "The boy, Jim, you three, Reese driving the second team's car. Everyone in that car will already be out, holding their positions. You take that car, you take my son, you head to the original location."

"Yes, sir," chorused from the team. Jim Beckett looked stone-faced, but he wasn't talking against it.

"Hunt, with me and Beckett. We draw them off. The whole group. If they don't _all_ follow this car, this car alone, then we will end it."

The car was silent. No shots were being fired at them, no shots _had _been fired at them. They were the ones doing the shooting. They were the ones desperate enough.

Diane Jolin could not get her hands on Kate.

"Beckett drives," he said then, sinking back in the seat. "Beckett has the wheel on this; we follow her lead."

If it came down to it; Beckett would continue the chase as quarry while he and Hunt were dropped off to make ambush.

Jolin would not reach his wife.

* * *

They met up with the second car two miles before the switchback. The transfer was fast. Castle unloaded James himself, the entire carseat pulled out of the back, and hustled the boy across to the SUV.

Sasha had refused to get out of the car; he couldn't waste time insisting. They didn't even have her leash.

Kate stayed with the Land Rover, crawling into the driver's seat, the dog going with her.

The back door to the other team's SUV was open and waiting; Castle refused to say good-bye. This was not good-bye. This was a delay, an obstacle to be overcome. He buckled James into the SUV, good and tight, and he brushed his hand over the boy's face.

"Be good, James Beckett," he said roughly.

Jim was belted in already; he reached out and snagged Castle by the arm. "Don't let Kate do something stupid."

"No," Castle said, shaking his head. "There is nothing stupid to be done. We will be at the rendezvous to meet you."

Jim sat back; Castle jumped out of the SUV. The Land Rover was already pulling out, causing him to take it up to a run. He caught the doorframe of the passenger side, hauled himself in even as Kate stomped on the gas. Sasha was in the floorboards at his feet, her eyes glowing red in the night.

Neither of them watched the SUV disappear down the access road. Their eyes stayed front and center as Castle wrestled the door closed even while Beckett barreled down the highway in the dark.

She flipped the headlights back on and the double yellow lines flared to life before them, a ribbon out into space.

"Hunt okay?" she said.

He turned his head to look. Hunt flashed him a thumbs up, his face pale in the darkness. "He's telling me a-ok, but I'm not believing it."

"Fuck you, big brother."

A cracked silence, broken and strange, alternate reality, and then Kate gasped on a laugh, helplessly.

Castle's jaw worked but there was something in it, yeah. "Blood will out," he said instead.

"That's the first time you've acknowledged my existence," Hunt muttered.

"It's just the first in your hearing," he shot back. "And if you don't bleed out inside my car, you little bastard, there might be more coming."

"Gasp."

Kate giggled. Fuck, she was not doing good if she was that punchy. Castle reached out and squeezed the back of her neck and she stiffened up, clutched the wheel tighter.

"Just get through this for me, babe. Just do this for me and we are home free."

"I know," she said.

"I am _not_ writing you out, you understand?"

Her eyes flashed fast to his. "I'm not either."

Good.

Suddenly the road was filled with the echoing sounds of an engine - a powerful one, at least another hemi. The trees reverberated it back to them. Castle turned to look and in that instant, the entire back windshield blew out spectacularly.

Beckett cursed as the explosion rocked the Land Rover sideways and fishtailed it along the highway. Castle was caught in a rain of broken glass, but he got up on his knees with Reese's left-behind AK-47, aimed past Hunt's head.

His brother. His wife. His _dog._

Fucking hell.

"I thought you said it was bulletproof glass," Kate was yelling at him. "You said-"

"It is. It was," he shouted back. The high speed wind whipping through the back window, the roaring of the engine in pursuit, sounds bouncing around inside the vehicle. "It was. I have no idea what the fuck that was. Hunt? You're on Kate."

"I got her back," Hunt said, already wrapping the loose seat belt around and around his wrist to steady him.

He rose on his knees as well, facing backwards just like Castle, putting his body between the car behind them and Beckett's seat. The driver had to be protected.

Castle nodded grimly and put his elbow on the windowsill of the passenger door, brought the AK-47 up and out.

Another percussive round went off somewhere over his head, shattering his senses; his own gun fired with his reflexive pull of the trigger. Beckett was struggling to keep the vehicle straight on the road and he could barely hang on.

The switchback would come at any moment. He laid down ground fire, aiming low and purposefully, the rear car swerving and veering and dropping back.

"We're coming up on it now!" she shouted.

Fuck, they needed more space between them. It would have to do. He ducked back inside. "Hunt, cover me."

The man began firing, indiscriminately, just shooting out the back of Castle's fucking car, but he couldn't care right now. He dug the over-the-shoulder out of the duffle in the floorboard and fitted it up against his neck, snug, tight, sighting down the range-finder.

"Steady as you can, sweetheart."

"Do my best."

He leaned out, precarious like this, nothing at all to hold on to, but he had to get far enough out the window for his right shoulder to sight the car behind them. Another percussive went off, but it was flashbang this time; and it dazed his vision something fierce, he shook his head, trying to clear his ears, his eyes.

"Fuck, fuck," Beckett was chanting. The car swerved. He cursed and felt himself sliding right out the window.

Only to be caught at the last second by Colin Hunt.

"Don't go running off now, big brother," the man husked, his body flung over half the front seat just to get to Castle. The two of them dropped back inside; Castle felt blood pressing against him where Colin was.

"Shit, Castle, Castle-"

"I'm okay. I'm okay."

"You're bleeding."

"Eyes on the road, Beckett."

"We have thirty seconds," she choked out. "I made the first curve. Coming up on the second."

Another percussive, this time the car rocked wildly and they all were thrown apart.

"Get in the back, Colin," he said tightly. "It's time to do this." He got up on his knees in the seat, braced his feet as best he could in the floorboards and then he turned to his wife. "Gun it, Kate. As much power as you can. I'm gonna blow shit up."

* * *

The back tires skidded as she hugged the line, centrifugal force taking them. She went with it, used the forces she had, made the dangerous descent through the second tight curve of the switchback.

"It's gonna roll," Hunt gasped.

"Not with Kate," her husband said grimly.

It didn't roll.

They made it onto third leg of the road at insane speed and they approached the bare place in the trees where, if you looked, you could see the road you had just left behind, the second car approaching that final curve, and slowing, hopefully.

Jolin had to slow or they couldn't do this.

"Castle!" she warned.

"Ready."

She stomped on the brakes and the car skidded wildly but the Rover was fucking excellent and they halted with a bone clattering jerk.

She turned her head and saw Castle sliding out the passenger window, not even bothering with the door as he set up his sights for the rocket launcher. She jerked on her seat belt, yanking open the driver's door, her heart racing, her hands fumbling.

She snagged the dog under the collar and yanked to make Sasha follow her.

"Go, go, go," she yelled to Hunt.

They couldn't - could _not_ \- be in that car when Castle shot the rocket launcher.

That was the whole point. They _had _to be clear.

Hunt still hadn't exited when Kate and the dog got clear, Sasha running off into the woods, no leash, and Kate had to run back to the car to yank open the back door. Hunt fell to the pavement, a tumble of limbs, and she bent over him, hooked her arm under his shoulder.

"You have to fucking move. You have to move. The Land Rover is gonna get the blowback."

"Fuck," Colin croaked. He couldn't seem to stand.

Castle couldn't choose _when_; he had to fire when the vehicle appeared on the switchback just above them. Because of the incline, if they didn't get the shot then, on the road above, the SUV would be upon them before they could get off a shot at Jolin oncoming.

"Get clear!" Castle shouted. "Fire!"

_Fuck._

She dragged Colin away; she had to fucking torque his arm getting him moving. And then she felt the fierce expulsion of exhaust and flame from the bazooka as they staggered across the road.

They had nearly made it. They had nearly made it when the force of the rocket's exhaust picked up the Land Rover, and it exploded.

* * *

Castle waited the half a breath to be sure, but the fiery cloud on the road above them was confirmation.

Target destroyed.

He dumped the modified RPG tube, faintly horrified at how his hands were shaking, and he turned to look for his team. His wife.

As he had known, the blast effect to the rear had been sizable.

The Land Rover was burning, and not where it had been.

"Beckett!" His heart was a hard thing in his throat. She would never hear him through the angry rage of the flames eating the engine block, but he shouted her name again, running in a wide loop around the hulking Rover.

"Beckett, answer me!"

He crossed the road, the pavement sticky with the heat of the fire, felt the itch at his back where the RPG had gotten him as well. Singed at the very least. Always the fucking problem with those black market over-the-shoulders; sometimes they were shoddily made. Sometimes the missile had degraded.

"Beckett!"

He pulled up short when he got to the trees, tried to think. If they'd been in the road, force of the blast would have thrown them clear.

Into the woods.

Fuck. Fuck, Kate-

"Castle."

His head whipped around, but the smoke from the burning car was roiling here, thickening even as he dashed through the trees. "Beckett. Talk to me."

"Here." She sounded faint. Her voice was bouncing against the tree trunks. The heat was intense. A stand of trees had caught fire, caught ablaze by gasoline in the Rover's explosion.

"Beckett!" he shouted, panic trying to get a foothold in his guts.

Suddenly she appeared in the smoke like a fucking vision, running crookedly away from him, a ghost with a dog at her side.

"Kate!" he screamed.

She jerked and turned, searching, saw him, and he was already jumping a fallen trunk and crashing into her, picking her up off her feet in sheer, dizzying relief.

"Kate, God, you okay, are you hurt-"

"It's Colin. It's Colin-" she croaked, her body twisting away from him, untangling.

He followed her jagged run back through the enveloping smoke, watched in alarm as the trees grew closer, their tops touched with flame. Sasha had disappeared somewhere ahead of them. "Kate, we need to move."

"He's unconscious. He's bleeding badly. I can't get him up."

"Faster, Kate."

He was crowding her back to get her moving, but she jerked to a stop and he crashed into her. Castle reached for her to keep her from falling and managed to land with his ribs against a tree, Kate cocooned in his arms. Her back felt slick with something.

"Here, he's here," she gasped, already slithering out of his grip and dropping to her knees.

Castle followed her down and finally saw him. Colin Hunt had a gash across his forehead that was muddied with grass and detritus, but that was a good thing - slow the bleeding. The stitches in his side had no doubt opened up, bleeding weakly, but he was breathing.

"I'll carry him," Castle told her, elbowing Kate aside. "Check yourself. I thought-"

"It's his blood," she husked.

"_Check_," he growled, slinging Hunt's deadweight over his shoulder. Fuck, this guy was heavy.

He glanced at her and saw Kate had finally paused to take inventory of her own condition; her hands peeled up her shirt and fucking hell-

"Oh."

"Shit, Kate-"

"It's okay. I'm okay. It's a scratch."

It wasn't a fucking scratch, but she'd said that in Mayak, Russia too. She'd survive, but the faster he got them to the rendezvous, the better.

He rose to his feet on a grunt, Colin Hunt like a fucking sack of golden potatoes, and tested his first step to be sure.

Solid.

"Beckett, hand."

She reached out for him, her eyes traveling fast over Colin Hunt, checking his condition, and she caught her finger in Castle's belt.

"You stay there," he said. "The explosion must have thrown you both-"

"I hit my head," she said quietly. "I know. It's not bad, but I'm dazed."

Well, fuck, direct assessment from Beckett in the field. She _could_ be taught. "Thank you," he rasped. "Hang on to me unless the terrain gets rough. If you let go, you gotta keep talking so I know you're back there."

"I won't let go," she said.

"Then we have something of a hike."

"You don't want to check Jolin-"

"No," he said grimly. "I want us clear."

"Then lead on. I'll be right at your back."

* * *

The bypass access road where they had left the other security team's SUV connected to the switchback further down. When she had been planning this in her head and filling in Reese on the idea, she'd been thinking about the bypass in terms of driving time.

But it was a fucking long walk, even cutting straight through the trees. Sasha appeared at the limit of their vision every now and then, but the wolf was in her, and the fire in the trees made it impossible for the dog to come back to them.

Sasha would be fine so long as she kept coming back to keep them in sight. And the further they got from the explosion, the better she'd be.

Kate's head was throbbing now, her side burned. Castle had to be straining even though super, a load like Colin Hunt across his back couldn't be easy no matter how many damn shots he'd had.

"You okay?" she asked him.

"Fine."

"The RPG get you?"

"Little bit."

Shit. That's what it was. Why he was holding himself so awkwardly. Hunt's body was no doubt rubbing him raw where the rocket had burned his skin.

"Castle, we can stop for a second and reposition."

"Do you need to stop?"

No, but he did. "I need to pick bark out of my side."

Castle halted immediately, head swiveling back to her. She saw the slice of discomfort behind his eyes and knew she'd chosen correctly.

"You take your shirt off and use it to pad your shoulder," she told him. Plus it would mean pulling the material off the burned places, letting her get a chance to see the damage, clean cotton out of his wounds.

"Maybe. Your side-"

"I'll let you look at it, but I'm just gonna pick out the biggest chunks. It's irritated."

Castle squatted down and carefully eased Colin to the forest floor by his arm. Since her husband was already kneeling, she put her hand to the top of his head and made him stay, gently tucked her fingers under his collar.

"Shit," she breathed. "Castle."

"It hurts but it will heal."

"If it gets infected-"

"My wounds don't get infected," he sighed. "Now let me take my shirt off."

She kept her fingers under his collar to help, keep the material from snapping back against the angry, raw skin. His back flexed, the shirt yanked off in one smooth movement.

"Fold it, maybe," she directed. He gave her a pointed look, already wadding up his shirt before she could finish her sentence.

She huffed and plucked at the hem of her own shirt, glanced down at the place where the force of her landing had broken a branch off in her side. Sort of. That sounded worse than it looked. Crumbled bark and shredded wood fiber, but she just had to keep her hands steady enough to get at it.

"How's Colin?" she asked.

"He's living still."

They couldn't do much in the way of help with those stitches. The security vehicle had a first aid kit that would work, but Castle had explained that the island was limited facilities - theirs alone, deserted, once a former CIA training ground.

Good for isolation, bad for medical care. He'd been planning on installing a lab and sickbay for the team - for James, his unspoken promise - but he hadn't gotten that far.

"Let me do that," he sighed at her. She dropped her hands and turned her side to him. His warm fingers came to her hip, thumb against her bare skin like a caress. She closed her eyes, let her shoulders slump, let herself be marooned by the exhaustion.

He touched her carefully, teased debris from the wound with such a gentle touch that she didn't even feel it.

A squeeze of her thigh let her know he was done. She opened her eyes and tilted her head down, sweat-damp and dirty and soot-singed, and he was grinning up at her.

"We made it," he husked.

"So far. We didn't check to be sure Jolin was taken out."

"She was taken out. I don't know how she could have survived that-"

"If she wasn't in the car-"

"Then we'll hear of it," he said easily. "Espo and Ry are monitoring everything. They'll be up there with the first responders. We'll get confirmation one way or another. Right now, we need to make the rendezvous."

She believed him. She did. "It was my idea," she said finally. "I'm the one."

"But I pulled the trigger," Castle said solemnly. "As everything with us, Kate. Teamwork. Partners. Ride or die."

His eyes were smoke-colored, the same silver-blue as their son. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the exposed skin of her abdomen, a hand at her spine, the other at her hip, reverent.

She sucked in a breath and dragged her fingers through his hair. Her husband, her partner in everything, life and death, all their stories. "Ride or die," she choked out.

They were crew. They were in this.

He touched another kiss to her hip. "Now let me scoop up my annoying little brother and we'll get going."


	5. Chapter 5

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

Sasha hunted far ahead, scouting their way, coming back to them when Kate whistled for her. The second time, Castle put a hand out and caught his wife's wrist, made her stop.

Hunt was coming around; his eyes opened and a groan sank from his lips even as Castle laid the man against a tree.

"Hey. Beckett. He's up."

Kate came at his back and trailed her fingers over his bare skin as she moved before Hunt. She knelt down, palmed the side of Hunt's face. "Colin? Colin, I need you to open your eyes for me."

Castle rolled his eyes, straightened up again, ignoring the tender scene. Fucking hell. This part - this part he wasn't a fan of.

"Hey, there, Col. You okay? Think you can walk?" she was saying.

Castle peeled his folded up shirt off his shoulders with a wince, pain racing under his skin like fire. The burns crawled with damaged nerves already trying to heal, and he knew it was the fault of the regimen. If he wasn't super, it wouldn't hurt so much.

Of course, if he wasn't, he'd have contracted some kind of nasty infection by now. And out here in the woods, animal decay and plant detritus made for serious, life-threatening bacteria. He knew a guy who had contracted a flesh-eating bacteria from a bad parachute jump. The Army Ranger had survived the tree, just hadn't survived the bacteria that glommed on to open wounds.

Fucking hell. Kate needed medical care. His imagination was a little too vivid.

"Beckett. He gonna make it?"

"I hate the bloody woods."

"Guess that's a no?"

"I can make it, you bastard. Give me a hand. No, not you, Kate. Castle-"

He leaned past Kate's stupid offer, grabbed Hunt by the upper arm and heaved. The Scotland Yard Inspector and moonlighting Interpol agent got to his feet, but he felt really fucking unstable. He looked sick.

"Not sure you can make it," Castle prodded. "You seem-"

"I'll make it," Hunt gritted out, eyes catching his with fire.

There it was again, enmity. Cain and Abel, only Castle was pretty sure he himself was the brother-killer Cain. Hunt was too unmotivated - and he hadn't had John Black for a parent - to take that role.

At least that sibling rivalry would fuel Hunt now, keep him moving when his body screamed to stop - if only to impress Kate. Castle didn't mind that; let him. He didn't doubt Kate in the slightest.

But he couldn't help poking at Hunt all the same.

"You sure about that?" Castle asked him. "You look kinda sick."

"Castle," she huffed at him.

But Hunt's face soured, his eyes moving off towards the woods, the fire just beyond them. The blood from his head wound still streaked down his face, running freely. "Is - she - the car's gone?"

"Both cars are gone," Castle said. "But yeah, we got her."

Hunt swayed. Castle had to jerk forward to catch the man, a spark of real concern in his guts as he pushed Colin back to the tree. Hunt tried to wave him off, but Kate came up at Castle's side, her body pressed against his as she moved in to peer at Hunt.

"Colin, what's wrong?"

"Look at him," Castle growled. "He's walking wounded, Beckett. He's lost too much blood."

"Colin," Kate insisted.

Castle glanced back at the man and had to reach out and catch him again as he slumped forward. But Hunt wasn't passing out; he was bowing over his knees and breathing hard.

Just beyond Hunt's bent form, Sasha slinked through the trees, finally making an approach. Castle glanced back at his wife to see if she'd noticed, but she was kneeling gingerly in the pine needles at Colin's feet.

"Hunt. What is it, what's going on?"

"You - you got Diane Jolin?" he rasped, lifting his head and piercing Castle with a fierce look. "The car is - it's gone?"

"Burning, last I saw it," he said. "It's the best we got. I highly doubt she'll find you now."

Hunt's face twisted.

"Oh, God," Kate whispered. "Jolin is your mother."

"_What_?" Castle roared. Sasha yelped and skittered back another thirty feet, but Hunt only sank to the forest floor. Castle went down on his haunches, reached out to grip Colin's shoulder. "Your mother?"

"Yeah," Hunt croaked, tilting his head back. "Bloody hell."

"Shit."

Hunt blinked and put a hand against his bleeding forehead. "Yeah, well. She was a right terrible mum, playing me off against him, so don't. Just - don't."

There was a long silence that wasn't silent - the woods were on fire and animals were moving ahead of them, escaping the smoke and the blaze, and the crackle of flame was as loud as their own breathing.

But Hunt was bleeding, and the fire was getting closer, and they still had miles to go.

"Kate," Castle said quietly, nodding to her. He leaned forward and scooped an arm under Colin, hoisted him up. "Lead us?"

The woods were pitch black where they weren't eerily alight, and since their phones were completely powered down to keep from being tracked, Castle was grateful Sasha was with them. Not right, what they'd done, not right to involve their wolf - either of their wolves - but the pack had already been threatened. Ride or die. They had been forced to; they'd had no choice-

And he realized he was making silent excuses to Colin Hunt, excuses the man wouldn't care to hear anyway.

"This way," Kate promised, starting off again. "We've got maybe another mile or so. Sasha might catch up to them before we do, bring us some help back with her."

As if hearing her name and understanding went hand-in-hand, the wolf's ears perked and her glowing eyes came back to them. And then in a breath, she was bounding away, scouting the trail ahead.

Castle stuck close to Colin Hunt and they made their laborious way through the woods.

His _mother._

* * *

"You gotta fucking put me down," Hunt grunted. Every breath was a grunt, and he sounded bad, Castle had to admit. "Bloody hell, put me down, my eyes are going to burst out of my fucking skull-"

Castle dumped him from his shoulder, cutting off Hunt's colorful complaint. The man listed sharply into a tree and Castle got a smack on the shoulder from his wife for it, but Hunt was fucking heavy and slowing them down and Castle wanted _out_ of these woods.

"Rick," she sighed at him, crouching to look into Hunt's eyes.

"We're _half _a _mile_ from the rendezvous," Castle muttered. "Maybe less. And he can't just suck it up?"

Hunt lifted blank eyes to him and Castle immediately relented. If the sibling rivalry shit couldn't get Hunt back on his feet, then there was no point in pressing it. His fucking _mother, _damn it.

Kate gave him a calculated look, and he saw she had just clued in to what he was doing, trying to take Hunt's mind off the pain - physical and emotional both. She quirked her lips and he gave her a half-shrug and turned away, scanning the area ahead of them. The woods were no longer crawling with animals, as they had been since the explosion, and he figured the fire was far enough behind them - and that the dog scared smaller prey into hiding as well - that it probably accounted for the sudden preternatural silence.

"Kate, whistle for Sasha."

She did, a piercing sound that echoed against the trunks and ruffled the treetops, sharp and clear in the humidity. Castle's gaze roved over the woods, something attentive and wary stirring in him.

Sasha didn't show up.

"She probably found the other vehicle," Kate said. "They've leashed her."

Maybe. He kept his eyes forward, turned his body slowly, orienting to the quiet in the woods around them. When he rotated his head, he saw it.

"Beckett, your gun," he said sharply.

He felt rather saw his wife scramble up, abandoning Hunt against the moss-covered trunk. She pressed her shoulder into his back. "In my hand," she murmured. "Where?"

His own weapon had been lost in the Rover. Beckett had their only piece and he was beginning to regret their haste. "My three o'clock."

"I don't see it." She was peering past him, gun at the ready. "What if it's Sasha?"

"It's not the dog," he said grimly. "A man."

"Our security team-"

"There's no reason for one of our security team to be hunting us."

"Fuck," she whispered. "Get Hunt on his feet; make him. He can't go over your shoulder if we're running for it. I'll guard your back."

Castle swallowed, scanning his gaze up and down the ridgeline that ran parallel to their track - and had been for the last few minutes.

"Castle. Now."

He cursed and dropped down to grip Hunt by the arms.

The man gave him a grim look. "You're gonna have to leave me."

"That's not happening - she wouldn't leave if I tried it," Castle said quickly. "So you better get to your fucking feet. Or Kate will die trying to defend you. Understand me?"

Colin Hunt gripped Castle's forearms, fingers biting into his biceps. "Pull me up."

* * *

They had barely covered fifty feet when the attack came.

Bullets clipped the underbrush at Kate's feet; she turned and unloaded three rounds of her own into the trees at the ridgeline.

"Beckett!"

She followed the sound of his voice blindly, her eyes and gun trained on the woods, and after a few paces, she was yanked off her feet by her husband and dragged behind a fallen trunk.

Fuck, her head was swimming again.

"Stay down," he husked.

"Take this," she murmured, pressing her weapon into his hands. "Three gone."

"Shit," he muttered, half rising to take a look over the tree.

"Why did he shoot?" she said, her cheek against the rough edge of bark. Moss tickled the back of her neck and then she realized it was Hunt tugging on her shirt. She turned and saw him crouched at her other side, a hand wrapped around the root system of the fallen tree.

"I got an idea. Get Castle."

"Castle," she called, turning to look at her husband.

Rick gave her his attention though he didn't take his eyes away from the ridgeline. "I don't know why he was shooting; there's no damn light to see. Makes no sense."

"Castle, Hunt has an idea."

Castle sank back down under cover, leaned past her to address Hunt. "What."

"There's a deep hole where the roots pulled up," Hunt said. He didn't look good. "I can hide there. You two go. Bring reinforcements."

"No-"

Castle gripped her by the arm, halting her immediate rejection. She shut her mouth, tried to overpower her own automatic dismissal. Tried to reason with herself - and with them.

"I could stay with you," she said slowly. "Castle is faster alone. He'd be drawing their fire anyway."

Hunt shook his head. "It's deep, it's fucking dark, it's ideal for one person. Plus I'm pretty bloody certain they're not after me. Jolin let me run, thinking I was done for, right? And they're not after _him_. If you stay with me, then you keep their attention right here."

"Fuck," she moaned.

Castle let out a breath. "He's right. Leave him in a hole in the ground and they'll never find him. Hunt-"

"I know. And you'd better fucking come back for me."

"We're not leaving you in a hole," she hissed.

"You're not going to have much choice in the matter," he said. He was already scooting backwards. "Once I fall in, impossible to climb back out without help."

"No-!"

But Hunt had already disappeared over the edge, a tumble of limbs and loose dirt, the thud of a body hitting the ground.

"Fuck," Castle said, sounding _impressed_, and she hated him a little for that. Hated them both.

Kate scrambled to the ball of roots sticking out from the fallen tree, tried to peer through the darkness into the hole. "Hunt," she called quietly. "Colin?"

"I'm okay. Can't see me, can you?"

Shit. She had no idea where he was; the hole was lost in deep blackness. "I can't see you. Please don't be stupid-"

"This is the smartest thing. But I better see your gorgeous face in a few hours, hauling me back out of here."

She grit her teeth and shot a look over her shoulder to Castle. He nodded and she turned back to the darkness where Hunt had disappeared. "I'll be here. Whatever it takes. You're family, Colin. You hear me? Even if you don't want it, can't deny blood."

"Get out of here, Kate."

Fuck, she was going to have to leave him.

Castle gripped her upper arm. "You okay to make a run for it?"

"Yes," she said. She didn't know; she'd have to. The dizziness seemed to come with sudden movement. A concussion maybe.

"It's dark," he murmured at her ear. "Choose stealth over speed, sweetheart, and stick close to me."

* * *

The woods had never felt more alien to her. Hunt back there alone, and the two of them moving as quietly as possible over limbs and underbrush.

The moon was enough to light the way, but the shadows were steep and confusing, and she kept hearing something pacing them.

It wasn't the dog.

"Why is nothing happening?" she whispered.

"Maybe he's injured."

"Maybe it's a lure," she said.

Castle jerked to a stop. "Fuck. It's a lure."

She paused at his side, their shoulders brushing, and Castle turned slowly around, putting his back to hers. He had the gun still in his hand, her weapon, and she really hated being defenseless.

"Two of them," Castle croaked. "Oh, hell. Beckett, get down." He yanked on her the moment bullets shattered the darkness; she felt bark blowback into her arms as she dove for cover.

But there was no cover.

"Move," she croaked to him. "Gotta move, Castle."

He was hauling her over a bush, dragging her with him until she got her feet under her. They dashed between the tree trunks and now she saw where the man ahead of them had shown up, the man behind them driving them forward into a trap.

That's why he had shot at them, to run them into his man up ahead.

They blazed apart to navigate a wide tree, but they came back together around the other side, his hand reaching out to grip her by the elbow. She shook him off to run, crashing through the woods, trying to take the lead because she had better orientation.

"Man at your twelve!" he gasped.

She jerked her head up, eyes skipping from her feet to the path ahead and she halted.

Castle ran into her back, hooking an arm around her collarbones to keep them both upright, raising the gun with his other arm.

He was aiming at Diane Jolin.

She was dressed in dark blue combat fatigues, blending with the night except for the horrid shock of white hair crowning her twisted, angry face. She had her weapon trained on Kate.

Jolin was alive.

"All my life," Jolin shouted. "All my life _wasted_. You did this to me; you made this happen."

Beckett trembled, pain pulsing through her head.

"Diane," Castle called out. "Jolin, we can help you. Something's happened, but we can make it right."

"There's no making this right."

Kate heard the man in the woods at their back making his rough approach towards them. Soon Jolin would have reinforcements. Soon they would be outgunned. They had no other choice. For Colin's sake as well as their own.

"Castle," she breathed, choked by his steadying arm around her neck.

But in the next instant, a streak of brown-blurred white leapt across the open space with a snarling violence. Teeth and red chatoyance, their wolf attacked Jolin, bringing her down.

Castle rocketed forward, calling for Sasha, heading for the tangle. He had just made it up the rise to them when a gun fired. The dog yelped and Kate started running.

But in the next instant, Castle fired.

The sound echoed in Kate's head as she climbed through the underbrush and skidded to a stop before the inert body of Diane Jolin. Blood and brains were streaked in her white hair.

"Oh, God," Kate husked. "Sasha-"

The wolf was a long way off, scared by the gunfire, her hackles raised and her teeth bared, slinking through the trees.

"She's not hurt," Castle breathed. She jerked her eyes to him in the moon-licked darkness and saw him breathing hard.

"You've been shot," she gaped.

"A graze."

"Castle-"

"We have to go," Castle said tersely. "No time for that. Her man is coming up at our back."

"We're going to lead him straight to James?"

"No. We're going to lie in wait." He brought his hand up to his shoulder, fingers came away streaked with blood. "Grab her gun."

Kate stared at him a heartbeat longer, but she moved when she heard the man running through the trees. He had heard the gunfire, obviously, and was coming for them. Beckett bent over the body of Jolin, pried the weapon out of her clawed hand.

She had scratch marks down her arms, defensive wounds from blocking an attack, and at her throat was the shining blood of a fresh bite.

Sasha.

"Beckett, let's go. We need to hide."

Her hands were shaking, but she gathered up the gun and gripped it tightly, got to her feet before her husband.

"Your shoulder."

"We need to hide. We'll ambush him as he comes up the rise. You take left - climb a tree to get the drop on him, like Tunisia, remember? I'll flank right."

He was fine; he was super, augmented, regimen-infused. It would hold long enough to pick off this last man and get to their waiting security team.

Beckett slunk off through the trees at his direction, shoving the gun into her holster. She picked a broad-limbed tree with lower branches, and she began to climb.

* * *

Once he was certain that Kate had climbed a tree, Castle skulked to higher ground away from her line of sight. The low-lying area where they'd been driven into Jolin's trap was below him, Beckett on the slope at one side, him the other. This ridge had been the man's last known position, and Castle wanted his wife well clear of the shooting.

His arm was bleeding. He touched the place again, debated pressing leaves or mud to the wound. His fingers came away tacky though, so he expected it to slow and stop eventually.

Meanwhile, he left a nice little trail through the woods, smearing his fingers on ground cover until he found his spot to make a stand.

Castle holed up in a screen of overgrown blackberry bushes, the new-growth canes bowed heavy with fruit, the thorns catching at his clothes. He was careful not to get blood anywhere nearby and leave an accidental trail; he had to press his good hand over his shoulder and worm his way deeper into the brambles.

He got into position, his belly to the ground, his elbows against the roots of the blackberry bush, the gun propped and held steady by his low stabilization. Sweat was trickling into his eyes and he could fee the thorns that had gotten caught in his clothing.

And here came Jolin's man, moving cautiously now in the quiet, a faint flicker of skin-reflection from the moon overhead. Castle found and lost him a few times, but it looked as if the man was following - vaguely - the blood trail Castle had left for him.

He fucking hoped Sasha stayed well clear, scared far away by the gun going off beside her head. Jolin had tried to fire at the wolf, but Castle had spoiled her aim by his arrival. The woman had tried to readjust, but it had been the exact wrong thing to do. Castle had been grazed but not before he got off his shot, mere feet from her, point blank to the head.

Jolin's skull exploding in grey matter had probably done it for Sasha. He wasn't sure they were going to get the dog back.

That was fine; he'd take it so long as she didn't come slinking back to him _now_. Let her find Kate in a tree on the other side of the gully, let her not come here.

The man was moving again, hunting Castle through the dark trees.

Castle swiped his palms off on the grass and dirt in front of him to keep the blood from making his fingers slick, and he set his face down level with the barrel of the gun.

The last man came into the narrow space between the blackberry bushes and the gap in the trees. Castle held his breath, waiting. He had - he thought - one bullet left. He'd lost track when Jolin had fired at them from above, shooting a few rounds wildly to divert the woman's attention from Kate's dodging run for cover.

One bullet. He had to wait, he had to time it just right.

The last man paused, eyes flicking over the darkness and moon shadows. Castle could see only the gleam of the whites, the darker impression of his outline merged with that of a tree. He needed a clear space; he needed the man to step forward.

Jolin's agent seemed to know, seemed to sense the not-right in the air.

_One more step._

Suddenly, the man darted forward, racing through the gap in the trees. Castle didn't panic, didn't let it make him shoot too soon; he just took aim, counted his breath, fired.

The man dropped with a groan, the sound burbling and of pain, blood in the throat. Castle wormed backwards out from the blackberry bush and got to his feet, kept well away from the man, waiting.

Sure enough, Jolin's agent got his weapon up, arm shaky, fired a round off into the darkness, the wrong way, but close enough for Castle to go still. Another shot in the dark.

Kate was going to come running; he could feel it in his bones. She was going to fucking run straight into this and Castle had no more bullets to put the man down.

Just then, Castle heard the bush shivering at his side and felt the animal at his back. He didn't move, couldn't move lest he give himself away to Jolin's agent, but the beast stopped right at his heel.

Sasha.

Castle lifted his fingers and the wolf put her nose to them; she was trembling, steaming with breath and humidity, and she pressed her body against his leg, all silent.

The man fired another shot in the direction that Kate would be coming from and Castle sank to his knees in the repercussion of the sound. He put his face to Sasha's, arms around the wolf. "Shh, hush, quiet. Quiet. Go find Kate. Sasha, go find Kate."

Whether or not the wolf understood his intention, Sasha knew _Kate_. She was gone in an instant, a moon shadow herself, the flicker of white fur nonexistent. Sasha would, at least, delay her.

Castle sat down to wait out the man's gurgling death - and to listen for his wife's approach.


	6. Chapter 6

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

When Beckett heard the first shot, she was instantly scrambling down the tree; she got to the lowest branch, gripped with her hands and swung out, dangling into darkness.

She couldn't remember just how far the drop was, but she dropped.

And rolled, came up hard with her back against a trunk but it only rattled her. Beckett got to her feet and took off for edge of the slope, wanting high ground and the slight clearing of trees where they had been ambushed so that she could see.

She heard two more shots, sporadic, but coming from across the gully, and she couldn't remember how many rounds Castle had left in her gun.

Fuck, and he'd made her take Jolin's, which had fresh ammunition. The bastard. He'd done this on purpose; he had _led_ the man away from her.

Something barreled into her at top speed, crashed her back into the underbrush, the air leaving her in a rush. A warm tongue, cold nose, whining, wriggling, furry - their wolf.

"Sasha," she gasped, tightening her arms around the dog. "Okay, okay, you're okay."

She had trouble hanging on to her, trouble keeping Sasha still. The dog was licking her face rather joyfully, all things considered, and Kate had the strange thought that Sasha's happiness meant Castle was okay. Sasha wouldn't be here if Castle wasn't okay.

"Let me get up," she husked into rough fur. "Let me get up and go find Castle."

Sasha whined and untangled herself, yipping in her throat in that way she had done when James had been a newborn mewling for them and Sasha didn't yet know what to do - only certain that something had to be done. It had been kind of adorable, Sasha whining and James mewling, the two of them talking to each other, call and response.

"Come on," Kate murmured, rubbing her hands over Sasha's fur to make certain she wasn't injured. "You're okay. Let's go."

She didn't try to keep her fingers under the dog's collar; she was afraid something would spook Sasha and the wolf would be back, uncontrollable, not a tame thing.

They skirted the edge of the gully - apparently the dog wasn't eager to go back down there either, Jolin's body somewhere in that glade. Kate heard one more gunshot and picked up her pace, unable to understand the pattern, no clear picture in her head of what had gone down. Or what _was_ going down.

The moon made the darkness all that deeper, the woods moved around her, the entire forest floor was conspiring to keep her away from him.

And then just that fast, she was colliding with another body, this one hard and rigid and male.

And bleeding warmly. Hanging on to her.

"Castle," she grunted, feet tangled in the excited dog and Castle's own forward momentum. He gripped her arm and hauled her into his chest, something a little desperate to his fierce embrace.

"Kate." He sounded like he had never expected to see her again.

She was pissed. "You fucking drew him away."

"Kate. You okay?"

"Yes, but you're _not_. You're bleeding, you asshole, and you led him straight-"

"Made a good trail," he husked. "Shut up, Beckett, I just need to hug you."

The fight left her in a rush and she snaked her arms around his neck and went up on her toes to press her body to his. "You stupid bully," she murmured, her mouth at his ear, her cheek scratched by his scruffy beard. "You damn man."

"Love you, too, sweetheart." He was still gripping her tightly and it told on him, just how dangerous it had been, just how much he'd taken on.

She socked him in the shoulder for it - the uninjured shoulder, because she was _nice_ \- and he grunted and bit her neck, sucked a kiss right at her skin, squeezing her harder.

"You're giving me a hickey," she muttered.

He scraped with his teeth and she lifted her knee, got him in the thigh where he blocked her move. She was still pissed at him for drawing fire away from her when _he_ had been _shot_, but she was never going to change him.

And he wasn't going to change her.

"I'm just lucky you're concussed," he rasped. "Makes you easy to trick."

"I hate you," she groaned. He was laughing at her now, dropping his arms from her only to rub his thumb at the place on her neck where he'd claimed her. She slapped his hands away and yet she knew he was grinning in the dark.

She was stupidly, stupidly in love with him.

"Sasha, calm down," he said then, bending over to pet the dog.

"I take it the last one is dead?" she said.

"He is."

"And you?"

"Not dead, babe."

She rolled her eyes and reached out, gripped his injured arm by the bicep, shocked to feel the hard knot, the ragged flesh, and the clotting blood. "Shit, Castle."

"It just needs to be stitched up," he said grimly. "And don't - don't knock loose the scab."

"What fucking scab?" she hissed. "It's a damn _hole_ in your arm-"

"It's not," he said. He reached across and grabbed her hand, squeezed her fingers a little too hard. "Listen to me. You know what I am. You _know_ how this works. Just - the sooner we get to the rendezvous, the less blood I lose."

Fucking hell.

He laced his fingers with hers and brought them to his lips, kissed her even with the blood sticky at her skin.

"Go on, Sasha," she husked, nudging the wolf with her knee. Her chest hurt. "Scout ahead."

The dog bounded out a few feet and came back to them, licked Castle's fingers, and then loped off into the trees.

Castle nudged her now, their joined hands coming up to her waist, pushing a little. "We can make better time now. Let's go."

* * *

Wasn't so bad. He was built for this - _made_ for this quite literally - and the trek through the woods with a bullet wound in the meat of his deltoid was not that big a deal. His only issue would be blood loss, but he could still go quite a while before it felled him.

Kate had trouble picking up her feet at first, but she got into a rhythm and he didn't see her faltering. The sweat was dripping into his eyes, the dead of night and still summer out here, but they were close.

In fact, Sasha barked ahead of them, her happy-to-see-you bark, and Kate let out a long breath of relief. They picked up their pace and already they could hear boots crashing through the woods towards them.

When their team came from between the trees, fanned out in a search-party line, Sasha was bounding ahead of them, excited and proud of herself, more puppy than wolf. She came straight to Kate and danced around them; Kate took a second to bend over and rub her ears for her help.

It was Reese who got to them first. "Sir," a nod to Castle, and then one to her. "Agent Beckett."

"Reese, good to see you. Our son?" Castle said quickly. "Jim?"

"Everyone's fine. Waiting up at the bypass where it meets the road. Satellite heat signatures confirm we're the only human beings moving out here. Mitchell says hi."

"Good," Kate said, pushing ahead to get to Reese. "Take Castle to the rendezvous with a man, you three come with me. We have to drag Colin Hunt out of a hole in the ground."

"Kate-"

She snapped her fingers at him, more furious, more grief-filled than she'd been in a long time. "Do not argue with me, Rick Castle. You need stitches. And James needs to see one of our faces."

"_Both_ of our faces."

"I promised Colin he'd see mine. _I'm _the one with perfect orienteering and you're the one shot. Don't even fight me on this."

Castle gritted his teeth, nostrils flared. He glanced to Reese. "Mitchell checked the satellites himself?"

"He did, sir. Yes, sir. We saw your incursion with the two in the woods, we just couldn't get to you in time."

Castle rubbed his hand down his face. "Fine. Beckett, so help me God, if you-"

"I won't," she promised, lifting on her toes and wrapping her arms around him. She put her mouth at his ear. "I promise, Castle. You do this for me, then you can trust me to do this for you. My turn to send you up a tree, babe."

"I hate this."

"Welcome to my world."

He huffed and gripped the back of her neck with his good hand, crushing their foreheads together, his eyes closing. "Fine. Fine. Go."

She kissed him hard and backed away, grabbed Reese and two of his men. "Back this way. It's a fallen tree, the hole where the root system pulled up."

Reese fell in at her side and she glanced back once to make sure Castle was leaving. He was. He was heading away with one of the security agents.

Her heart was at ease.

* * *

Castle approached the SUV and watched in grim silence as the door swung open and Jim Beckett got out. He nodded to the man to let him know everything was fine, and her father opened up the back door and pulled James out.

Shit.

James was set on his feet and he wobbled on the rough gravel of the bypass, but he was clearly eager to see Castle. He managed a few halting steps and then the dog was slinking past Castle to run to James's aid. The boy caught hold of Sasha's ruff, and together they came towards Castle.

James was beaming.

Castle got to one knee and opened his good arm, gathered James up against his chest. "Hey, wolf. You happy? You're giggling. Walking is pretty awesome, isn't it?"

James chuckled like an old man, wriggling close to his father as Castle stood up, blood dripping from the fingers of his other hand. He kissed James's cheek, smiled at the sound the kid made, kissed his neck to hear it again.

"Kate and Colin?" Jim asked, coming up to him. "Whoa, Rick. What's this? Hey, Len! Len, get over here. He needs medical treatment."

Len, apparently, came running from around the SUV, a kit in his hand and his gun holstered, thank goodness. Around his kid, shit. The dog was shying away from the security team, jumping into the back of the SUV and staying there.

Castle kept James in his grip, glanced once over his shoulder to the woods. "We had to leave Colin in a hole. Kate's leading the team back there." Castle grunted when Len started cutting the sleeve from his t-shirt. He glanced at Len and the man ignored him.

"Mama?"

"Yeah," Castle said gruffly. "Mom's coming with Uncle Colin."

"_Uncle_ Colin?" Jim barked.

Castle flushed and glanced to Kate's father. "Kind of a joke," he said. He gave Jim a knowing look, then jerked his chin towards the security team around them. Mitchell's guys, yeah, but they were keeping the circle very limited as to who knew about John Black.

"A joke," Jim said nodding. "Just thought you hated him, so making him an uncle surprised me."

The cover was a little weak, but Len and the others didn't seem to notice. The guy who had guided Castle back to the rendezvous was conversing with Reese over walkie and not paying them any attention, plus the other two guys were standing guard in a loose perimeter.

"Yeah, well, heat of battle, right?" Castle said finally. "But I'm sure I'll go back to hating him soon enough. You guys okay here?"

"All fine. Pleasant drive through the woods. You guys make it out okay?"

"Most part. Rover's gone and I'm afraid the kid's blanket was in the car."

"But elephant's here," Jim said, nodding. "And we're all alive. So I'd call this a win."

James cuddled up to Castle, laying his head on Castle's good shoulder, his fingers scratching at his father's scruff along his jaw, over and over.

"Elephant was saved," Castle murmured, kissing James's forehead. "It's late, even for you, wolf. You wanna try to sleep?"

"I need you to sit down." Len pressed an alcohol swab deep into to Castle's wound and it made him flinch, which made James grunt in displeasure.

"Okay, shit, Len. Ease up, man. I'll sit." Castle headed for the open back of the SUV, sank down to the tailgate where he could still watch the woods. Sasha nosed into his elbow and licked James's bare toes, making the baby giggle. "Have at it, Len."

James shifted but only to snuggle in closer, fingers flicking over Castle's beard.

"Hey, soon as Mommy gets back, you need to try to sleep."

Jim sank down beside him on the SUV's tailgate, but he was on Castle's other side, not blocking his view of the woods. "What happened back there?"

"We followed the plan," Castle said tonelessly. He was used to debriefs. "Beckett - Kate - drove; we made the curve, she stopped. I got out with the RPG, fired when the pursuing vehicle came into sight. The blowback caught the Rover." Castle paused, winced as Len started stitching his shoulder without the local. He didn't need it, but it was damn uncomfortable.

"And then?"

"Hunt was already injured," Castle said, carefully editing. "He was struggling to keep up. I wasn't certain we had immobolized everyone in the pursuing vehicle, but I knew we had to put distance between us. After a mile or so, we realized we were being followed on foot."

"You're kidding. Who managed to survive that?"

"It was Diane Jolin," Castle said grimly, sliding his eyes to Len once more. Who was Len? Mitchell's friend or previous resource, some guy he'd picked up, what? Obviously, he was competent and Mitch trusted him with high-value targets, but Castle didn't know this guy.

He wasn't sharing more than he needed to.

"Jolin and one other man came after us. We took fire. Hunt was slowing us down so he opted to fall back. Beckett and I struck out together, Jolin chased after Beckett, and I had to get creative."

"And now?"

"The threat has been eliminated," Castle husked. James was a heavy, tired weight against his shoulder. It was incongruous, mission speak with his innocent boy laying on him, those little fingers flicking against his skin.

But Castle was here for him, and not dead in the damn woods; his mother would be coming out through the trees at any moment. They had made it and that's what counted.

"And now that Jolin is - gone - what are we doing? Just - going back to the city and pretending like this never happened?" Jim growled. "Just like everything else never happened? Just like-"

"No," Castle said tightly, shaking his head. "We're continuing on to the safe house - the island - and we'll stay there while Mitchell's security team cleans up for us."

Jim grunted but that quieted him.

The medical team was back in New York, not compromised so far as they could ascertain, the entire lab still under wraps. The CIA Office might have to be relocated, which was going to a massive undertaking, but Castle and his family were heading out of town for a little while.

Until they could be sure the Collective wasn't going to send someone out after their missing doctor.

"Mama."

"She's coming, wolf. Promise." He kissed the top of his son's head and held him closer, but his eyes stayed fixed on the woods.

* * *

"Lower me down," she said to Reese.

"Agent Beckett-"

"I'm the lightest. And you can stand to lose my weak upper body strength anyway."

"Agent Castle-"

"-isn't here," she cut in. "And he'd say it anyway. Hunt's unconscious down there; we need to haul him up. Someone has to go down. Reese. Stop arguing with me and just make it happen. I want to see my son."

Reese clicked over just like that, mild disapproval to military command. "Yes, ma'am. Doernberger, get her harnessed. She's going down the hole."

Beckett felt not an ounce of smug satisfaction; her mind was in a million places at once. She was back with Castle, the gunshot wound; she wanted to wrap her arms around her son; she couldn't stop worrying about Colin stuck down there and not answering her.

Doernberger proved to be the only female on the team, and she came jogging up with a length of matte black rope, began looping it around Beckett in a simple harness. Her hands were fast, light, but rather intimate as the rope passed between her legs, and Kate was stupidly and suddenly grateful that Reese hadn't done it himself.

And that Castle wasn't here because he'd have done it, and _his_ hands on the rope and his body close and the way he looked at her when they parted on some mission anywhere - that would have been too much.

She was about one kind word away from breaking down. She was pretty sure she had a concussion, and the wound in her side burned like a bitch.

"Tug on this," the agent told her.

Kate tugged on the two straps going over her shoulders, nodded to show they were secure.

"It will keep you from flipping," Doernberger said. "Use your toes as you go down, lightly, not your hands. A sudden drop - don't panic. I've got the other end around a tree and you won't elevator crash."

"Elevator crash?" Beckett echoed, eyebrow lifting.

Doernberger grinned. "You know. Plummet sixty stories, flattened like a pancake. Elevator crash."

"Great," Beckett said wryly. "Thanks. Where'd Mitch find you again?"

"Honorable discharge, ma'am." She saluted and fell back in line with Reese and the other one, and she got her hands on the rope. Reese was the pivot man, and he came to Beckett, gripped the knot at her stomach, tugging himself.

"Don't be stupid. Slip out of the harness, put it on Colin Hunt, two tugs for when he's ready. We're pulling him up fast so our arms don't wear out. Then we lower it back down to you and we pull you up. Do _not_ try to climb with your hands, use-"

"My toes," she said back. "Doernberger already told me. Let's go. No time to waste."

Reese's jaw ticked, but he turned slowly to his team. "All right. You heard her."

In moments she was over the side of the hole and going down. She couldn't believe she had let Hunt fall backwards into this cavern of dirt, this black pit. Fuck, she hated dirt and darkness together like this, the close feeling, the decay. Reminded her of a cave in Russia.

Fuck, stop it.

Her feet hit the bottom before she knew it and she called back to them, "I'm down." She heard a response from Reese and she started slithering out of the harness before even pulling out the light.

She had a glowstick from Reese in her back pocket, tugged it out and broke it open, holding it up to see. Colin Hunt was sprawled in the bottom, unconscious, blood soaked through his shirt. The glowstick they'd dropped when they had arrived was weakly illuminating the far corner of the hole, unhelpful.

She hurried over to Hunt, dragging the harness and rope with her, and she quickly assessed his condition. Slow blood loss, stitches ripped, but she needed him conscious for this.

Kate got the harness over his feet, tugged up to his knees before his dead weight prevented her. "Colin," she said quickly, being careful not to jerk on the rope. "Colin, you gotta wake up."

She crouched over him, slapped lightly at his cheek. He didn't stir; the harness was simple but she thought even with his dead weight in the ropes, it wouldn't flip as he was pulled up.

She gripped the length of rope that formed the loop for his leg and she worked it up his thigh to his crotch. He moaned and his lids fluttered and she grimly rolled her eyes.

"Of course. Colin Hunt, you're a lecherous bastard, now open your eyes." She had to lay down the glowstick between his knees so she could see what she was doing and get a good grip; she scrambled over to his other leg and worked the rope up.

Her knuckles grazed him and he grunted and came awake, hands grabbing for her, crushing her down against him in a sudden reflexive move.

"Kate," he croaked.

"Yeah, it's me," she whispered. "Let me go or Castle-"

"Fuck," he cursed, gasping as he came upright. "What are you doing?"

She chuckled, tried not to really, but he had deserved that a little. "I'm not coming on to you, Colin, I'm trying to get this harness up to your hips. Help me out."

"I can - can barely move."

"You can do this if you want out of the damn hole."

"Yeah," he said roughly, nodding his head in a kind of crazy bobble. She lifted her hand to his face and felt the clammy heat of his skin. "Okay, okay, Colin. Come on. Arms into the loops, right here. Let's go."

She started hustling him through the ropes, working faster now that she could feel how loose his body was, how ready to slide back into unconsciousness. He was worse than she'd expected, though a knife wound to the side - what had she been expecting?

And his mother. God, she hadn't even - Diane Jolin was dead and Castle had shot her and at some point they were going to have to tell Colin Hunt that information. But not right now, in a hole in the darkness.

"I thought," she said slowly, talking to keep him with her. "You'd be a little super too, you know? Sharing genetics."

"He never gave me the fucking shots. Bastard."

"I know," she hummed. "I know. Come on. One more loop."

"I never got a damn thing. Just - demands, all the time. Do this, follow this, go here, apply here. I didn't want to be an Interpol agent. I just want London. I'm a cop. Just London."

"I know you are, and I'm gonna get you back there, Colin. I promise. Just shift your hips up so I can get the harness on you."

He did, grunting as he moved, a moan rippling from his mouth.

"There we go, that was it. Last of it." Kate reached up and tugged sharply twice on the rope. "They're going to pull you out now, Colin. Okay? They're going to get you out of here."

"What about you?"

"They'll drop it back down for me. I'm fine. Here." She bent down and grabbed the glowstick, put it in his hands. "Take this up with you. It helps. Put your toes against the sides to steady you. They'll be going fast."

He blinked in the sickly green light and then suddenly he was jerked free of her, rising already, a gasp on his lips as the movement jostled him.

"Fuck," he groaned.

"You're fine. You're gonna be fine. There's a medic waiting at the rendezvous."

"Kate."

She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him go.

* * *

When the walkie crackled with Reese and Beckett's location, coming through the trees and nearly at their perimeter, Castle completely ignored the two men trying to hold him off and walked straight out into the woods.

With James and the dog, and probably not entirely a wonderful parent decision, but he didn't stop to think. Jim didn't try to follow and Castle walked the trail they'd had coming out until he saw the ragged line of them heading their way.

"Beckett," he called, unable to help it.

She brightened when she saw them, her whole demeanor changing in an instant when their eyes caught. Worth it. Worth walking out into the woods, bringing Sasha back with him despite the way she slunk against his side because he had James and Sasha followed James no matter the trauma.

No more trauma.

"Hey," she called back, her smile widening. She started to hurry, the most graceful thing in this woods, long lean lines and the radiance of the moon on her skin. She met them in a moment, threw her arms around them both, kissing first James's sleepy happiness and then Castle, her mouth warm with promise.

"Hunt okay?" he asked, rubbing his free hand up and down her back, his shoulder aching with the effort.

"I think he will be," she said, turning her head to look. Reese and another guy were carrying Hunt between them, the man unconscious. "Did someone treat your shoulder?"

"Yeah, guy named Len. He's got the worst bedside manner."

Her eyes came back to his, a rueful smile. "And you make the worst patient. Come on, let's get to the car. I think I could crash. Hey, James, my little wolf, are you being squishy with Daddy?"

James held out both arms to her and Kate took him, cuddling him at her chest, swaying him back and forth in the middle of the woods. Castle let her long enough for James to feel her presence, bask in it a little, and then he took the boy back. He hadn't forgotten she had a scrape in her side and a concussion.

"You still got a few yards to go," he told her when she protested. "Get moving, Beckett."

"Aye-aye, sir," she muttered, rolling her eyes. He put his bad arm at her back and nudged her forward, and she went, moving quickly now through the trees, a woman in combat gear shadowing her - must be the man-to-man security detail that he'd asked Mitchell for. He hadn't realized they were with him here.

Oh, right. Reese was his own shadow. That made sense now. No wonder Reese had protested their splitting up.

Kate hooked her fingers around James's bare little ankle, her thumb stroking his leg as they walked, and Castle felt the boy grow heavy with sleep. He had already started to drool by the time they got to the SUV, fists loosening in Castle's ruined, bloody shirt.

He had his family back, everyone safe. They were all safe.

"What do we do now?" Kate asked, allowing him to open the back passenger door for her. She grasped the door handle and the overhead grip and hauled herself up into the backseat. "Jolin's dead. What are we doing now?"

"Going to the island," he said. "CIA has some clean up to do and we'll put feelers out, see if the Collective sends anyone after Jolin."

"La Lune," she murmured, her eyes ranging out into the dark woods. "I didn't tell Hunt about - about her."

Castle stayed quiet, handing the sleeping James over to her; Kate scooted in and Castle dragged himself into the backseat with her. She seemed, for an instant, reluctant to let James go, but she brushed her lips over the top of his head and carefully put him in the carseat.

Castle leaned past her to draw the boy's arms into the restraints, moving slowly, not waking him. He dipped two fingers down the baby's sloping nose, and then Castle leaned back in his own seat and closed his eyes.

Kate curled her body into his and buried her face against his good shoulder. He faintly recognized the sounds of the SUV loading up with their original security crew plus Jim and Hunt in the middle seat. A contingent would remain here until the other vehicles could get to them; they'd have to cordon off the woods where Jolin and her agent had been gunned down, recover the bodies.

Hunt would have to be told.

There was so much left to do, but he was mentally exhausted.

He just wanted to feel his wife against him, feel the thud of her heartbeat as it slowed to resting, feel her fingers trace designs over his chest where the wolf was inked.

"I love you," she whispered.

He hooked his arm tighter around her neck and dipped his head down to push a kiss to her temple. "Love you too."

From the driver's seat, Reese made the _move out_ signal and the SUV lurched forward, turning around in the gravel and heading away from the bypass towards the road.

Castle let out a long breath and heard his son's echoing sigh from the carseat as he sank deeper into dreams.


	7. Chapter 7

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

She woke when Castle shifted her off of him and back to the seat, but she was too tired to protest, simply curled into the nearest thing. It happened to be both hard plastic and fuzzy warmth, and then she felt her son's giggle and his hand at the top of her head, patting.

"Shh. Quiet, James Beckett."

Castle moved away from them; she heard conversation from the driver, her father, her husband, but she was just so tired and the baby was canting his head down to hers and it was kind of nice, being squishy with him.

She dozed like that for a little while, cramped in the seat, crick in her neck, and then Castle crawled back to them and resumed his spot. His arm came under her shoulder and lifted her from the side of the carseat, and it was awkward but she found herself with her head in her husband's lap and the heavy weight of his palm over hear so that she slept.

She gasped awake when the SUV came to a groaning halt; she must have flailed out, because Castle had caught her wrist and was drawing her arms back down. She sucked in a terrified breath and that brought awareness, cold clarity, so that she grunted and sat up, rubbing a hand down her face.

Castle let her go, though she realized he was herding her jerky limbs away from the baby who was asleep in his seat, even through that.

"Where are we?" she husked.

"Just crossed into Mass," he whispered. "Heading for the ferry to take us over into Nantucket. And then we have another boat ride after that."

She blinked at him, nothing quite registering but that one geographic location. "Nantucket."

"Our place is a little south of there," he said quietly. The SUV had stopped for a traffic light at the end of an interstate exit; her father had turned around to give her a tired smile.

"Our place is... Nantucket is one of the most expensive beach properties... Castle," she gaped.

He shrugged.

"Did you - you didn't take from our retirement for this, did you? Because we-"

"No," he grinned. "The portfolio."

When they had been looking to buy their home, they'd gone over their finances together, delegating responsibility for bill-paying and other personal identity things that most people did rather automatically. So much of their money went through the CIA that she didn't always have a clear picture on just how much money they had; she knew it was a lot because hazard pay for the missions they ran was enormous.

Had been anyway. Hadn't been on hazard pay for a while now.

"How much of it-"

"All of it," he said, shrugging again. But he looked anything other than casual. This was a big deal; he'd spent a fortune acquiring the property, though to be fair, he had gotten it from the CIA in the first place, so the price would have been discounted, considering the fact that the government never sold out of the family.

"You liquidated the portfolio," she murmured. "_Oh. _Your father's portfolio."

Castle's eyes shifted away from hers, his shoulders seemed to hunch. Right before her eyes, his whole demeanor changed.

The portfolio was the massive wealth John Black had acquired through (and for) his MK-ULTRA project: the program. Technically, Castle himself. When Beckett had discovered the money trail and unearthed most of Black's holdings, Castle had been appalled. But they'd used that money for the medical team's new location and upkeep, and he'd had to admit that they'd needed it. She didn't know how much had been left after they rearranged the accounts and established the med team's trust.

But Castle had used it all. She knew he hadn't like having it.

"Hey," she said, catching his hand and bringing it against her chest. "That was extra; the trust is secure and the medical team has what they need. You didn't use any of ours-?"

"No, no," he husked. "Retirement, like you said, we're going to need it."

She nodded, swallowing. The covert nature of their jobs wouldn't end when they retired; not for them. It couldn't. They'd made too many enemies; the regimen was too necessary for their lives. They would need money to keep their identities under wraps for the rest of their lives.

James would need the money.

"It's just the stuff Black set up, long time ago. I took all of it and I bought this place for us because it's secluded and safe and I - you said once you wanted to go to the beach, and I want to take you. I want us to take our son to the beach like normal people."

Kate eased her body back against his, looped her arm at his waist. "I ever tell you, Castle?"

"Tell me what?"

"I never wanted to be normal."

He let out a shaky breath and his chin dropped to the top of her head. "I ever tell you? I always did." His fingers stroked through her hair, and it was a testament to how very soaked in his love she was, how completely solid was their partnership, that his admission didn't even rock her boat.

She just felt sad for that little boy who'd been abandoned by his mother to his father's untender mercies.

Kate pressed herself closer, brushed her lips to his ear. "Then we'll go to the beach, Rick. We'll take our son to the beach and have our vacation and nothing will hurt us there. Nothing can possibly hurt us."

And she believed it.

* * *

They made a motley crew disgorging from the SUV and straggling up to the Nantucket Ferry. Colin Hunt was rolled out a wheelchair, though he didn't look happy about it. Reese loaded Hunt's one piece of luggage onto his lap - a bag made up for him by one of their security members back in New York ages ago - and pushed him towards the ramp for priority boarding.

Castle held James on his injured side to hide the wound, though he had a fresh t-shirt and clean pants on, and Kate had changed as well, her body rising up from the backseat like a wave as she'd pulled on shorts and a t-shirt. She had packed dresses, she'd promised him, her mouth at his neck as she'd climbed back over the seat. But what did he need for dresses? Her shorts exposed the long line of her legs and made her knees knobby and touch-able. He was skimming his fingers at the tops of her thigh right now, though she swatted him and moved forward to the kiosk.

Kate had a bag over her shoulder and sunglasses on her head, and she glanced back at him now, winked as she paid for their ferry tickets, counting heads as they passed her to board. Castle hung back, letting all of them go ahead, waiting on Kate.

Six agents, her father, Colin Hunt, himself, James, and Kate last of all, bring up the rear with the dog's leash wrapped around her free hand. Sasha was docile, the wolf had been smoothed out of her by the long car ride, and she kept her nose in the air, scenting, though her ears were natural and her tail wagged from time to time.

James was completely sacked out on Castle's shoulder; Kate was long-limbed elegance beside him as they headed for the interior benches. The security men were attempting to be inconspicuous, but Castle had a feeling that no one was going to go unnoticed in their party. He and Kate and Jim sat alone, Hunt somewhere forward with Reese and another man, while the guys prowled the boat. Castle's best hope here was that they wouldn't be known as the family with the bodyguards, that no one else on the ferry with them would connect their little bunch to the trained men-in-black running around. Hopefully the man in the wheelchair would be associated with the team.

That was the idea anyway. They needed their island to be as unknown and untouched as possible to maintain its shroud of secrecy.

Once they got to Nantucket, it was going to be easier to control the flow of information. The second boat they took would go out of the Harbor under CIA operation, and that eased his mind at least.

Kate was wriggling next to him as if she was trying to get comfortable, and he watched her out of the corner of his eye. When she got situated, he shifted James to the center of his chest to rest more comfortably - and off Castle's bad shoulder - and then he nudged her with his knee.

"Hanging in there?"

"Yeah. Nap in the car helped. Headache is just a dull throb."

"Concussion."

"Mm, maybe. Not sure. Got knocked around, but I never lost consciousness."

"Good," he breathed, but he was going to get her checked the second they got to the island. He and Reese had debated getting medical care in Nantucket itself, but they didn't want to leave a paper trail this close to their final spot.

"How's the wolf?" she murmured. At her feet, Sasha perked her ears up and gave them a look but Kate leaned over, petting her down again. "No, puppy, not you. I know how you are."

"Wolf number two is just fine. Asleep still?"

Kate glanced over and checked, ducking her head to see past the clutching of his elephant. "Yeah. He's not too heavy?"

"Oh, he's heavy," Castle drawled. "But it's just fine." Even if it weren't, Castle wasn't about to let her carry around the baby all evening. She'd been on half days, had been taking naps and going to bed early. This hadn't been a good day for her. To say the least.

Kate sighed and leaned her chin against his shoulder, tilted her head down to kiss the top of his shirt and then curled in next to him. She was warm, damp with sweat from their car ride. The ferry ride wasn't that long, but he hoped she slept, recovered a little while she could.

The ferry's engines started over, churning and groaning, and James stirred on his chest. His body shuddered as if with sleep, but his arms drew in and his head came up.

James blinked, looking around as if checking in. His mother first, then Castle, then widening his scope until he'd seen Jim on the other side of Kate and the dog on the floor, and further out - Colin and Reese and the guards. The boat was new for him, and his eyes were wide.

Castle shifted on the bench seat until James was closer to the window at their backs; the boy leaned out with both hands on the glass, his mouth dropping open at the view of the sound.

"Ocean," Kate said quietly. "All that water. And those are the trees where we were driving in our car."

James turned his head to her in one long, absorbed moment and then he looked back out over the water and the waves, the darkness and the stars.

"You see the moon?" Kate whispered, kissing his cheek. "The moon sees you."

And James laughed for them, clapped his hands together as if he hadn't just experienced a car chase escape from his home and a gun fight.

* * *

James was a hit.

The other passengers talked to him and clapped with him, oohing and ahhing over the scenery as James turned and pointed things out. He made his surprised face often, repeatedly drawing people into his vortex of cute and adorable.

Kate kept her cheek against Castle's good shoulder, hiding her laughter into his shirt. He was so frustrated, poor guy; he'd been planning this surreptitious, fly-by-night thing.

"Remember Versailles?" she murmured to him. James was entertaining a group of two grandmothers and three middle-school girls. He had the ladies wrapped around his finger. "Castle, you said the best way to hide was in plain sight."

"Because you're so stunningly gorgeous," he said, sounding affronted. "Not because my son is flirting with girls four times his age."

"He's not even one year old yet, so that would be technically-"

"Fine, women _sixty_ times his age," Castle muttered.

"You love it," she laughed. James heard her and turned his head to include her in his wide-eyed wonder, pointing at the window and dark water beyond, the bobbing reflection of the moon. "I see, wolf. Isn't it so pretty?"

"Mama!"

"The moon."

He didn't try that word either; he hadn't repeated much of their sounds lately and she wasn't sure if that was because of his natural reserve or if he really was having a problem.

And when, in the overwhelming issue of her own damn recovery, had they been able to concentrate solely on their son and whatever issues he might have? The focus needed to swing back to him.

And Castle. Castle had-

"Mama!"

"I see you. It's all so new and pretty."

He strained to reach her, but again Castle wouldn't let him. Her husband put his mouth to James's ear and whispered instructions or remonstrations, and as he spoke, James's struggling ceased. Secret conversations. Castle was always having these little talks with him, like James knew at all what the words meant.

He seemed to get the tone though. Or maybe the thought behind it?

James went back to leaning against the window, watching the waves and the light on the water, and Kate slid her arm through Castle's and found his hand. "What did you tell him?"

"To be more considerate of his mother."

Kate sighed. "I'm really-"

"You still have wood chips in your side, Kate. I can see it on your face when you move too fast. And maybe a concussion. He can stay right here close to you and that will be more than enough."

She stared at the back of her son's head. Her son whose name they carefully weren't using in a public place, her son who had been caught in a car chase with Collective agents, her son who had applauded and grinned at them the whole time.

Her son who was perfectly happy watching the water go by the boat and pointing out the sights to his new friends.

No. She wasn't worried.

* * *

They disembarked in stages, Kate taking Sasha's leash, Castle with their son while the security team filtered through the line so that there was always a man ready, alert. Castle was quite pleased with their professionalism, the ease with which they made it happen.

He carried James, the boy still not tired. The nap in the car had probably screwed up his sleep schedule; the baby usually stayed up later with them than most, but he liked his sleep.

That had always reassured Castle. James got good sleep, long stretches of hours and hours, and if he could sleep, then he wasn't all that super. Not like Castle was super anyway. That was always what Castle had told himself.

They were nearly to the stairs that led topside, the two elderly women angling close to coo over James, picking up his hands and touching his cheek. Castle withstood it as best he could, smiling to the women, answering their questions about age and habits and mood with as much vagueness as he could get away with.

"Wait, hang on," Kate said suddenly, slapping the leash into his hand and darting around him. He saw the flash of pain on her face as the wound in her side took her by surprise, but she was still moving. He followed her trajectory and saw her return to their seats, and then she bent down and scooped up elephant.

Hell, if they'd left elephant on the damn boat after all that-

"Here, here," Kate said with a rush, coming back to them. She took the dog's leash back and tucked elephant into James's side; the boy beamed back at her, hugging the stuffed corduroy animal. That elephant had once been Kate's, a gift from him, and Castle was caught off-guard by how much it affected him, thinking they might have lost it.

"Hang on to it," he told James, hearing the sternness in his voice that came from emotion. He couldn't seem to help it. "You have to keep up with the things you love, little wolf."

"Dada?"

"Daddy's fine," Kate murmured, her fingers wrapping around his bicep. "Elephant's fine. We exfiltrated him."

One of the older women turned her smile on Kate with a kind of bewildered innocence, and Castle felt his wife grow rigid beside him. She'd slipped - just a little - using shop talk with their son like they always did.

"Are you ladies okay getting up the stairs?" Castle said hurriedly. "Because here we are. It's rather steep."

The two were immediately enchanted and hastened to reassure him, the moment smoothed over just like that. Kate let out a breath and knocked her forehead into his shoulder in gratitude, but Castle took one hand off James and caught hers with a squeeze.

"Like you said. We're fine; hide in plain sight. People see what they want to see - a cute baby with his parents."

She nodded, but he could see it had checked her - that slip. She wasn't fine. She'd been chased down and shot at, thrown from an exploding vehicle, hunted through the woods, and finally escaped. She was tired but she'd _been_ tired, and this was pushing her too far past her breaking point.

"Reese has two men getting the cars off the ferry," he murmured. "And then we'll drive straight to the private dock and go from there. Maybe two more hours, three tops."

"I can make it," she told him. Her hand came out and tugged James's shirt down over his back, rubbed softly. "And if not, I know you'll carry me. It really will be fine."

He took a deeper breath and gestured her to go ahead of him up the narrow stairs. He had her back in case she fell, but she wouldn't fall. She was close, but she wasn't going to let him down.

Kate Beckett was singular. No one else could ever do what she did.

He followed his wife and their puppy up the stairs and out onto the deck, breathed in the warm, salt air. James snuggled down with his elephant and put his cheek to Castle's injured shoulder.

He didn't even feel it. The wound was healing.

* * *

The security team took possession of the water craft at the private dock a full twenty minutes before Castle, Jim, Kate and Hunt even made it there in their car. Hunt looked marginally better - they had Len keeping watch over him - but sitting up looked painful for him.

James had fallen asleep in the car's short ride across Nantucket, the dog at his feet, but he woke again when Castle got him out of his seat.

"Mama?"

"She's right here," Castle murmured, tucking elephant under his arm. The night was heavy and close with humidity, the darkness like a presence. James gave a pitiful noise - it was too far past bedtime for him - and Castle tried his best to soothe him. "Mommy's right here with Sasha. I bet you'd go to bed if Mommy curled up with you, right? Kate?"

She sighed at him. "Castle, I'm-"

"Yeah, I know you are, but he's tired, and you could use the rest too. So - two birds."

She narrowed her eyes at him in the darkness, but she didn't keep arguing with him about it. They followed Reese, who had come up from the dock to meet them, and they boarded the quiet little houseboat together. There were two cabins, fore and aft, and Colin was laid down in one with Len's insistence, while he and Kate and Jim moved into the other. Jim had grabbed the baby's bag, so they were marginally supplied, and the cabin had a narrow bunk against the wall.

"See?" Castle said, nodding. "Right there. Keep him from rolling off the bed."

Her jaw worked, just a brief flash of stubbornness, but she didn't refuse him. She sank down onto the bed and pushed the shoes off her feet, leaning over to rub Sasha's ears. "Fine. Dad? You too. At least sit down."

Jim Beckett had been rather quiet the whole trip, and Castle knew a talk was coming - when Kate fell asleep. That was fine; he deserved it. Jim was her father and his concern was warranted - his _fears_ were warranted. Castle nodded to the older man and headed for the bed with James.

"Castle, you too. Sit with me," Kate told him. "Right here. You don't move."

"Kate, I should-"

"No."

He closed his mouth, regarded her thoughtfully. He was learning; he really was. She needed that security of having everyone she loved in place, near at hand, and he was finally figuring out how to meet her needs.

"Lie down, then," he said, moving to sit as well. He sank to the foot of the bed, lowered James to the mattress beside the wall. He placed elephant close at hand, but the stuffed animal didn't seem to help. The boy whined in his struggle for sleep, drew his knees up under his body as he tried to get comfortable.

Sasha watched from her spot on the floor, ever the attentive mother-wolf, but she dropped her muzzle to the mattress and seemed content. Kate laid on her side with her body curled around James and the baby latched onto her, burrowing into her arms.

The wound was on this side, and Castle reached down, skimmed her shirt up to take a look. She'd been bandaged by Len earlier, and the blood hadn't seeped through the sterile pad, so it was okay for now. Lying on her good side meant that her back was to the room, and he realized that might be part of why she needed him. He could stand guard, and she could come down from high alert.

Castle shifted an arm under her shoulder and pulled her into his lap, her cheek against his thigh. Her eyes closed on a sigh, but her body was loose around James, already dragged down with exhaustion.

Jim settled into the chair at the narrow table, all of the furniture bolted down in the cabin. He laid his hands on the wood finish and watched Kate's back. Sasha finally dropped down to lay on the floor, making that peculiar wolf-yawn as she did.

Castle lowered his hand to his wife's head, smoothed the hair back from her face. Her eyes opened and flicked up to him, a thin and fleeting smile, and then her shoulder dropped and her eyes closed and she drifted off.

He kept his hand carefully still, fingers petting her hair, laid his other hand on James's back, keeping watch. When he was sure that Kate was too far under to rouse again, and James on his way, Castle lifted his head to look at Jim.

"I'm - sorry for this," he said quietly. He'd gotten Jim's attention, and her father raised his eyes, his mouth opening. But Castle had to say it first. "It's not right, and I know that. James should never have been in the middle of this - and I know I keep saying it, but I want Kate clear, I do, only she keeps getting caught in my-"

"Son," Jim said firmly, interrupting. "Don't."

Castle swallowed. "I just want you to know that I _know_ what we're doing is bringing down trouble. I know I keep making these promises and shit keeps following me back to her and-"

"Rick," the man called. "Rick, don't ever apologize for making promises. Not you. You follow through every last time." Jim was standing up now, pushing out of the chair and heading for him. He looked tired too, and it was late for all of them, and yet Castle was the one in a bed.

Jim got to them and reached out his hand - but he laid it on Castle's shoulder and squeezed. "Son, I'd hug you, but I'm afraid I'd wake everyone up. I don't think you quite get just how impossible this seemed five years ago. My daughter has a good man who loves her beyond what seems humanly possible, and you have a son that you both are teaching to follow in those footsteps. Whatever it is you have to do to keep that - the balance of your family - you should never apologize for."

Castle lifted his head, gave Jim a look, his heart in his throat.

Jim sighed and sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed, his hand still squeezing Castle's shoulder. "After my wife was murdered, Kate broke apart in the way only she can - inside, piece by piece, contained. She had - it seemed like she was all sharp, jagged edges. You couldn't - handle her or she'd cut you."

Fuck.

"And then I got drunk and stayed that way. It was a dark time. But we made this deal with each other - I'd sober up and get help, and well, so would she."

"I - heard this," he rasped. "She's told me."

"She never kept her end of it," Jim said clearly. "Not for any length of time. She went door-to-door in that neighborhood once - she tell you that? Door to door in Washington Heights asking the same - same damn questions that got her mother killed."

Of course she had. Of course. She was Kate Beckett.

"And worse, she did worse. I knew it, but I couldn't really call her on it - I'd lost all my credibility with her, long time ago. When she made detective, I thought... here it goes. It starts now. I'll never - never get her back."

"God," Castle whispered.

"I had to come to terms with that a long time ago, Rick. That I was going to lose her - and probably worse, more devastating a way than I'd lost Jo."

_Jo_. Castle had never heard Kate's mother mentioned in such familiar terms. As a person and not just this crusade, this trauma that had fucked them all up. Hell, it was heartbreaking, and here was his son in his arms and his wife asleep in his lap, and _Jo_ had been Jim's partner just the same.

"All of this feels like a wild and outrageous gift from above," Jim scraped out. "Extra. At any moment..."

"No," Castle said, shaking his head. "We have worked damn hard to be here, Jim, and we are not letting it go. Are we?"

Jim gave a relieved little chuckle, swiping his hand down his face. "Do my best. I just meant to say - you stop apologizing for doing all that damn hard work, son. You hear me?"

Castle nodded, swallowing thickly.

Jim patted his shoulder. "You keep holding on to it, and you will never hear a word sideways from me, Rick. Now fill me in on all this with - your brother?"

It took Castle entirely too long to switch gears.

"Colin Hunt," he said finally. "Hell, I don't even know."

"So. Start talking. Maybe we'll figure it out."

So Castle just started talking.


	8. Chapter 8

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

Kate woke to the thump of the houseboat bumping against the dock.

Castle was gone and the cabin was dark, James rousing in her arms. She ducked her head back to his and tightened her arms around him, easing his transition to wakefulness. They had made port, then, and would be disembarking soon.

Even through her exhaustion, she was excited to see the place. Castle had bought her a whole damn island for James's birthday. And now that she was a little more clear-headed after her nap, she realized he had probably bought this boat as well.

James stirred, his little fists in her shirt, sucking on his bottom lip and opening his eyes slowly. She smoothed the fine dark hair back from his forehead and he released one hand and yawned.

She smiled and shifted to sit up, taking him with her, wondering if she should try to leave him here. Her father was slumped in the corner of the narrow bench that ran along one sloping side, his sleep unmoved, his cheek pressed to the wood of the paneled wall. The dog was gone, probably had followed Castle.

James lifted his head from her shoulder and looked around, solemn and still sleep-blurred, and then he cuddled back against her, worming closer.

"Hey, there," she murmured, softly kissing his cheek. "I'll bring you outside with me if you stay squishy."

His eyes dropped closed.

"Yeah, I know. We've kept you up so late. Bed soon, little wolf." She got slowly to her feet with the heavy boy braced in both arms, moved hesitantly for the door. James was breathing deeply at her neck, mouth snuffling with sleep-sounds against her skin. She got a hand on the door to the cabin and pulled it softly open.

Her father never woke. She saw he had a fleece blanket over his legs which stretched out along the bench. She paused in the open doorway to watch him, but he didn't even stir. She had no doubt he was completely worn out.

"Dada," James murmured.

"Yeah, let's go find your daddy," she whispered and stepped out of the cabin.

The interior hall had running lights along the floor, but the overheads had been turned off. Probably to keep from ruining their night vision out on the deck. She carried James out of the hall and down to the pilot's room, found Castle talking to a man at the controls with Sasha out of the way under the pilot's wheel. The dog's head came up when they entered, and it alerted Castle as well.

He glimpsed them and smiled, held out his arm to her, silent invitation. She came in at his side and his arm slid around her shoulders, hand rubbing her back before dropping again. He took James from her without comment, the boy giving a content little noise as he dropped his head to his father's chest.

"Kate, this is Marco, our pilot. He's one of ours - and a Nantucket native. Marco, this is my wife, Kate."

"Good to meet you," she said, holding out her hand to shake. Marco had a dark look to him, Greek or Italian in heritage, and close-set eyes that made him seem untrustworthy. But when he shook hands and spoke, his smile transformed his face, his voice was a rich baritone that warmed the room.

"Glad to have you. And thanks for buying this place, really. It needs some TLC after the Agency ran amok over here, you know? Plus the work you've had done on this beautiful boat - I'm in love. I hope you'll let me keep my job."

"Of course," Castle said immediately, as if hurrying past Marco's comments. "It's yours really." Castle didn't want her to know that he'd done work on the boat?

Goofy man. She nudged Castle in the ribs and smiled at Marco. "Rick can be rather lavish, and he'll run roughshod over you about this boat if you let him. Stand up to him if you want something done differently, Marco. Anything at all. He'll listen - even if it doesn't look like he is."

"Hey, now," Castle muttered, actually flushing a little. Marco chuckled and Kate gave her husband a beaming smile, and a kiss against his cheek as she rested her hand at James's back.

"You know I love it," she whispered. "The beautiful boat, the island getaway, the thought and care you've put into it."

She could practically see his chest swell with pride, the deeper breath he seemed to take, the clouds clearing from his eyes. He was worried about her, and he wanted them all safely off the Collective's radar, and he was doing the best he could to appear nonchalant.

She twined her arm through his where he was holding James, and she leaned her cheek to his shoulder for a moment, a press of her body to his so he was reassured.

Marco reached out and patted the baby on the back. "And who is this little one?"

"James," Castle answered, some of his tension releasing. "He managed to catch a nap, thanks to your smooth sailing. We hope he'll fall back asleep for the night."

"I have four of my own," Marco said with a broad smile. "Let me just warn you - he got a couple hours of a nap? He won't be going back to sleep any time soon."

Kate groaned softly and Marco laughed, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, _that's the way it is._

But she thought, actually, that James would be happy to find a bed in a home where his parents were close. All it would take would be a few minutes of standing over his crib and stroking the hair at the back of his neck and he would drop right off.

He always did.

* * *

Castle had a silent tug of war with her over who would carry James off the boat and down the long boardwalk up to the house, Castle with his fast-healing (albeit bullet) wound or Kate in her recently and still recovering _near-death_ toxicity (plus concussion, plus nasty scrape down her side). Castle won only by virtue of her father, Jim, coming in and gathering James into his arms, cutting off their unspoken arguments.

"Thanks," Castle sighed. Jim also snapped his fingers for Sasha and the dog came to heel without the leash, bounded down the gangway ahead of them.

Kate looked plenty pissed as she glanced between them, but she smothered it and headed for Colin Hunt, who was being attended to by Len. As per Castle's instructions, Len gently but firmly rebuffed her help, doing everything for the once-again-unconscious newfound brother.

Castle had a brother. Holy shit.

Kate was glaring at him; she'd figured out that he'd instructed their security team to keep her from doing any of the work.

But she came back to him, arms crossed over her chest, and stood before him, one eyebrow raised, blazingly hot in her indignation. Righteous as it was.

"You," she said.

"Me," he affirmed. "Because I love you."

She narrowed her eyes at him and he gave her a winning smile.

"Castle, you're close to crossing the line, you know."

He slid an arm around her waist and reeled her in slowly; she resisted only a little. "I know. Me and that line are old, old friends, Kate Rodgers."

"These are all our people?" she murmured.

"All our people."

"Then we're safe," she said, lifting her chin to meet his eyes. "We're safe and you can relax, let Len or me or someone look at your shoulder again-"

"After we clean out the gash in your side," he equivocated.

She snaked her arm around his neck and came up against him, though he noticed she kept her other arm down, close to her wounded side. "Deal."

"James is still clingy," he whispered at her neck. Their people were disembarking around them, good-naturedly rolling their eyes or stepping around the obstacle they'd made right at the gangplank.

"Object permanence," Kate said, laying her head at his shoulder so that she was tucked into him.

"What does that have to do with it?"

"King said this is the time he develops object permanence. When he knows that things still exist outside of his view. Like us. So he wants us."

"Oh." Huh. "That's kinda cool. What's next?"

"Um, something about solving new problems. Finding a hidden object at a new location."

"Right. Like when I hide elephant behind my back - he can totally play that game. But if I hide elephant in the couch cushions, he doesn't get it."

Kate laughed, her arm hooking tighter at his neck. "You play hide and seek with elephant behind your back?"

"Uh. Yes?"

"You're kind of an adorable daddy, Rick Castle." Her kiss was soft and silky, and she tasted like salt.

Like their island. "Come on," he husked, framing her face in his hands. "I want to show you how grateful I am."

"What?" she whispered, eyes blinking, lashes separating, gorgeous.

"How so very grateful I am for this, how you kept our son safe and healthy even though it put you at such risk. How you fought to stay with me, fought to _live, _Kate, fought against your own natural instincts even, just for me. You're a gift I can never repay, never even get close, but here's a drop in the bucket."

"Castle," she sighed. "A whole damn island is more than a drop in a bucket."

"No, sweetheart. It's not."

He kissed her again and dropped his hands, took the tips of her fingers instead, led her towards the gangway and the island waiting for them in the darkness.

* * *

Holy shit. Castle had bought her an island.

Even with the night shrouding the horizon, the stars were brilliant and the moon laid a path. Her father walked behind them with a wide-awake James and she kept turning back to see the little boy's reaction to all the new sounds and sights.

Castle led her by the hand up the moon-soaked boardwalk and she let her eyes roam over the sea grass that waved in the breeze coming off the ocean. The waves crashed on the shore at their back, the dock long and wide, and their whole company moved like a snake up the gradual rise to the house.

It was made of stone and wood and shingle, like an English cottage in the Tudor style, empty flower boxes in the upstairs windows and golden lamps burning down. A detached open garage already housed an electric car, a new skinny model that Castle must have bought to have permanently here, solar panels on the roof soaking in only moonlight.

The men carrying Colin began to divert from the boardwalk towards a path through the thin-trunked trees on the right, and Kate caught Castle's arm. "Where are they going?"

"There's a cottage out back," he reassured her. "Bathroom, kitchen, a few rooms. I thought your dad would like to have his own space. Or if Carrie visited. Whomever."

Her heart was going to burst; he just - he put consideration and effort into everything he did. Nothing was wasted, no attempt half-hearted. She scanned the birch trees that stood in silver sentinels to one side, a thin forest of them atop the cliffside that lead to the beach. Beyond that, the path disappeared and the men were out of sight.

Castle touched her back. "For now, Colin will be in the cottage with most of the security team. The rest of them will be positioned around the island. There are two outbuildings that you can't see from here, one off through the trees, the other just down the coast, and they form our perimeter alarm."

"Wow." She turned slowly in the grass at the front lawn, the massive, sprawling lawn that cloaked the house on the left as well and meandered easily down to a kind of bay. She dipped down and skimmed her hand over the green blades, watched Sasha bounding in great circling loops around them, slinking in and out of the dark. "Dad, put James down in the grass. It's soft; he'll love it."

Jim sank down on his haunches and put James's bare toes to the ground; the boy squeaked and laughed, his old man chuckle, his eyes bright and glancing between the three of them. Jim let him go and he crawled forward on his hands and knees for a moment, and then he dropped his cheek to the grass and laid down.

"Oh, poor baby," Kate laughed, covering her smile with her hand. "Okay, I'm sorry. We'll explore later, little wolf. Dad-"

Her father was already scooping James back into his arms, picking grass from his pajamas. Kate couldn't help running her fingers over the grass again, shrugging her shoulders at Castle's amused look.

Their son had a lawn to play in. That seemed monumental somehow.

Castle offered her his hand and she took it, allowed him to help her stand. She followed her father back to the dirt path that wound through the lawn and up to the dirt-track before the garage.

Her father took James on into the house with the rest of the crew getting things set up and unloaded, but she paused with Castle before the somewhat rundown, two-story house. She could see where the paint was peeling, but the roof was new. She could see how Castle had been working on it.

"It's beautiful," she told her husband. She knew he'd been planning to get it done before James's birthday in October, so he must have everything lined up. And she actually liked the quaintness, the lived-in feel, even if a bunch of CIA agents had been doing the living.

"It was a safe house," he murmured. "A Russian scientist spent twenty years here during the Cold War and when he died, the Agency couldn't figure out what to do with the place."

"I love it," she reassured him. "I kind of even love that a Russian scientist spent twenty years here making it his home."

"Yeah, he - uh - it's possible he worked on the regimen with my father," Castle sighed, his forehead dropping to hers. "Everything is - touched by it. I'm sorry."

"I'm not. I'm so very glad," she told him. She wound her arms around his waist and pressed close to him, the scrape in her side beginning to throb now that she'd been walking around. "Means you're here, means you're alive."

"Means _you're_ alive," he whispered.

"Our family." She slid her hand under his shirt and pressed her palm to the heat of his back, the curve where his muscles met his spine. "That day that I - when Bracken took me out in front of the grand jury building. I hadn't even gotten a chance to tell you I was pregnant. We could have lost him then-"

"But we didn't," he rushed in. "We didn't lose him-"

"Because of you," she said, tilting her head back to see him. "We didn't lose him because he's got your special genetics, Castle. We should have lost him; any other - we would have lost him. So whatever I did to keep him safe, you did too."

"Yeah," he croaked, "you're never gonna convince me that we're equal in this, love. You died for him."

She cringed at the tone of his voice, the not-yet-healed crack that went straight to his soul. She didn't know how to repair it, didn't know if it could be repaired. Talking with Dr King had been making a world of difference, most definitely, but the very idea that he had lost her - for James, because of the DNA inside James - she knew he couldn't get past it.

But he could do these little things. He could buy her a house - a whole island - he could keep showing her his love, and loving their son, and putting in the work. He could take care of her, and she _knew_, she knew that it eased his heart.

So she clutched his waist and asked him to run roughshod over her. Asked him to be a bully. "I'm tired," she whispered at his ear. "Get me fresh butterfly bandages and a bed, Castle."

He was sweeping her off her feet before she could get the last words out.

* * *

"The kid needs to go to bed," Jim warned him. But he handed James over to Castle and said his good-nights, abandoning them to it. James ducked his head against Castle's shoulder and clung to his father like he might be made to leave.

"We'll get him down," Castle promised. Eventually. James was being clingy - squishy, as Kate had started calling it - and Castle felt an answering need in himself as well. Have his family close, together where he could see them. Get to them in time.

"Night, Katie," her father called. He waved as Kate turned on the couch and then he was gone, heading up the stairs for the only bedroom with an actual bed.

Castle brought James with him into the living room, lowered him to stand before the floor-to-ceiling windows. No curtains even, nothing but a couch he'd bought first thing a few months ago, intending to create the whole space around that one piece of furniture. It was a good couch. A hundred times better than theirs at home.

Kate was ensconced on that couch, favoring her wounded side, her skin a little more pale than he'd like. She was tired though, everyone was tired, but just like James, she'd had enough of a nap to keep her going for a while yet.

James stutter-walked to the windows and pressed both hands to the glass, then mashed his face against it as he peered out into the night. From their vantage point, they could see clear down to the dock just past the sea grass and the dunes, the whole beach illuminated with stars as bright as street lights.

Castle went back to the couch and cleared Sasha from his spot; the dog switched places with him, jumping down to stand guard over James. Kate settled in at his side, her arms sliding around his waist, her weariness a tangible thing in the air.

He stroked his fingers back through her hair and kissed her temple. "You good?"

"Mm."

Close enough. He'd take it.

Suddenly the boy pounded the window and rattled the glass in its frame. "James Beckett," Castle warned.

James turned his head to look at them, making his surprised face. Kate laughed, but Castle's heart rate had picked up. He hadn't finished inspecting the place, and he was certain all the doors and windows needed new frames.

But James saw Kate laughing and gave that shy smile back, pounded a hand into the glass once more.

"No, James," he told the boy. "The glass needs replacing. It will break." He could envision the whole thing - one excited drumming session and the entire sheet of glass would shatter and rain over his son, the boy falling face-first into all those jagged shards, sliced and bleeding- "I said no."

James let out a sob and pitched forward into Sasha, clutching her fur and burying his face into her side. Castle jumped from the couch before Kate could even begin, hurried to the boy and gathered him up, pressing his lips to the top of James's head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my fault. Didn't mean to put that out there." He cradled James as he stood before the windows, tried to forcibly erase the image from his mind.

Maybe it had been his tone, but he'd been strict with James before. No. Castle had no doubts any longer. None. He just didn't know how to bring it up to Kate.

"It's okay. You're safe. We're all safe, Jay." He wondered if Colin Hunt knew anything about this, about the regimen, the serum, about what happened to them with their twisted up red blood cells, their altered DNA. What might have happened to James.

"Mama," James snuffled.

"Okay, okay. Let's cuddle with mommy on the couch. Carefully." But he kept himself from imagining anything terrible, kept his temper even, filled his head up with his love for Kate, his overwhelming responsibility and adoration of his son, and James began to settle down before Castle even moved from the spot.

He went back to the couch and Kate's open arms, and he purposefully sat close, let himself feel her warmth against him and her sleepy concern for James, let it flow through him.

It calmed him too. He didn't know how much of this James was getting, or even _how_. It could be nothing more than a more receptive version of what most called intuition, picking up body language and facial movements more acutely than anyone else. It was probably that. He was overreacting.

"Hey, Squishy," Kate murmured, cuddling around them both. "You're so tired, James. You should sleep. You'll feel better if you just let yourself go."

It was probably just their son being attentive to them after they'd been gone, probably just that object permanence thing Kate had been talking about. Castle had scolded him for pounding on the window and he pretty much never got talked to sharply, and he was so far past tired, and now Castle had completely talked himself out of what he had been so certain he knew.

It was nothing. They were simply a close-knit threesome. It was natural that their son would pick up on their moods.

"We love you, we always love you," Kate was murmuring. "Even when you do something you shouldn't. We all make mistakes, little wolf. Now sleep."

It would be better in the morning, after they all had gotten some rest.

* * *

"His future bedroom is just through here, with ours off the hall," Castle explained in a low voice. "But it's a few rooms away. What do you want to do?"

"With us," she said quietly. James was heavily asleep lying on her chest, and honestly, she didn't mind staying right here. But Castle would be cramped all night, even if the couch was a monstrous beast that took up half the wall. "Blankets on the floor in our room."

"I pulled out one of the kitchen drawers, actually," he murmured.

"Kitchen drawers?" she laughed, her palm smoothing down James's back. He was truly down for the count, mouth pressed open by the force of his cheek against her. Sasha lifted her head from her spot at their side as if to rebuke them for talking while she was trying to get her baby to sleep.

"All we have for furniture. We didn't have the time to get what we needed. We're lucky his go-bag was in the other car."

"I saw the electric car in the garage," she hummed, tilting her head back to look at him. "And the new roof. You're working on it."

Castle lowered his mouth for a kiss, which hadn't been her intent, but she smiled into it and gave it back. He was being as squishy as their son tonight, his emotions closer to the surface - or as close as Castle ever got them.

"You did a lot," she said when she got her lips back. She lifted her hand from James's back and rubbed Castle's jaw, the scruffy beard he'd kept for her. Might be time to shave.

"I haven't done near what I wanted."

"What other plans?" The interior was as cozy as the outside, though far more spacious than she'd initially thought. With James asleep and her body warm and relaxed into Castle's as they laid on the couch in a wolf pack heap, she wanted to talk with him a little longer, give him the chance to wind down.

He liked to talk, to tell stories about his day or something James had done. He needed to be reassured about them again, and she could keep her eyes open long enough to give it to him.

"Castle," she nudged. Her other arm was still curled under James's bottom, holding him against her. "What else are you doing to the place?"

"New roof went on first, so it's weather proof-"

"I'm not worried," she murmured, fingers brushing his lips to silence the hasty reassurances falling from his mouth. "Dream with me. I want in on the story you're telling yourself."

Castle let out a long sigh and his arms drew tighter for a moment before loosening again. "As much as we can, we take off each summer - eight weeks - and lose ourselves down here. No phones, no computers-"

"Don't take my laptop from me," she husked, smiling at him.

"Fine," he grumped. "Spoil it already-"

"But no work, no meetings, no mission ops - that I can agree to," she said quickly. "And then?"

"And then nothing. No plans. We play with our son on the beach, we swim in the ocean, I'll teach him how to fish, your dad can stay as long as he likes, teach us all how to track in the woods."

"There are deer in these woods?"

"Not deer," he murmured. "Lots of red foxes. I've seen their tracks all over the island. Some of the guys found a nest of babies in one of the outbuildings."

"Oh, we have to show James," she whispered. "And teach Sasha to leave them alone."

"No, let the wolf hunt them," he answered. "They're pests."

"No," she said firmly. "No, nothing gets hunted."

"And what about the fishing?"

"You'll throw it back. Nothing is killed here purposefully."

Castle let out a breath and buried his mouth in the top of her hair. "Okay," he mumbled.

"Okay?"

"You're right, Kate," he husked.

She nodded and glanced down at her son; she had the feeling he would learn a lot. More than most little boys, more than was normal, tracking and survival and the skills it took to hold his own.

Suddenly, she had the strange urge to teach him other things, beautiful things, like music and art and literature, things for the survival of his soul, things his father had been refused as a boy.

"Can we get a piano?" she murmured.

"A - piano? Sure. Why?"

"I want to teach him to play," she sighed. "It's stupid, I know-"

"It's not stupid," he said fiercely. "It'll be good for him. You know how to play?"

"A very little," she admitted. "Do you?"

"I - used to," he said woodenly. She felt him shake his head. "Mother taught me when I was small. Four or five. I would play and she would sing and practice for a musical or - I don't know - there were men who wanted her to sing."

Kate caressed the side of his face, angled her neck to kiss him softly. "We'll teach him. Or. Or your mother?"

"If she shows up for lessons," Castle sighed.

Yeah, there was that. "We'll teach him. Or maybe violin or guitar or - I don't know. Anything. Something creative."

"Unlike me," he said.

"Or me, though I had dance for years."

"You did?" He sounded stunned. She laughed and turned to look at him, disturbing both Sasha and James so that the baby mewled and the dog gave them a look.

"Okay, okay, I'll hush," she chuckled, petting both of their wolves, Sasha behind the ears and James down his back.

"Guess that's why you're so graceful," he murmured at her temple. "James could do dance."

She was surprised; all his talk about hunting and tracking, she'd thought Castle saw boys a certain way. "He could," she answered.

"Good balance and control. And grace like yours shouldn't be wasted."

She huffed, glancing back to look at him, but he seemed serious. Of course Castle would think about it practically. He had never been given the opportunity to find joy in anything for himself alone.

That had changed, of course, but it was an old pattern of thinking that wasn't likely to stop. She didn't mind. They were partners; she would her best to take up where he was weak, just as he did for her. But the positive side was that Castle had no predetermined directions for James; dance or piano or tracking in the woods, didn't matter to him so long as the boy wanted to do it.

"There'll be a lab in one of the buildings," he said then. "But between here and those perimeter stations, it's endless trees, beach, and hills. The sky is clear and shot through with stars and there's a cove at the back and side of the house, down the boardwalk that direction, where it's safe to swim."

"We should swim," she murmured. "After he goes to sleep? Swim in the moonlight."

Castle shivered and she remembered the story he'd told her about the girl in the loch who had slit his throat, the girl he had killed in self-defense in Ireland. Colleen. Skinny-dipping with her one night. But the scar had faded to nothing at his collarbones and she skimmed her hand up and over the skin.

He caught her wrist and kissed her fingers. "We'll go tomorrow. Skinny dip in the ocean in the stars, anything you want. But for now, we should sleep. Give the wolf to me; I'll carry him to our room."

All she had to do was loosen her arms and Castle had him, tucking James into his chest and shifting to stand.

It was a beautiful place, but he was right. She was so tired. They needed rest. Tomorrow they could discover everything else.


	9. Chapter 9

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

Kate woke just before dawn with her back aching from sleeping on the floor and sweat damp between her shoulder blades. She slipped out from under the covers and tried not to disturb Castle, then crept towards the wide drawer they'd converted into a makeshift crib for James. The boy was asleep on his belly, curled up around his corduroy elephant. She brushed the hair back from his forehead and kissed his sleep-warm skin, and then she got to her feet.

She didn't want Castle to wake, so she headed out into the hallway to find the guest half-bath off the kitchen. She used the bathroom and washed her hands without turning on the light, her eyes gritty and lids heavy. She moved back towards their bedroom but stopped in the wide foyer where the stairs ascended.

She opened the closet under the stairs and found a man's old plaid shirt, drew it on over her t-shirt. Her toes were bare on the wood floor, but it was warm, and she would be walking through the soft grass anyway.

Kate slipped outside and took a deep breath, filling her lungs with a strange freedom. The sun had just begun to make tentative forays into the night, giving the horizon a grey streak towards the east over the water. Kate followed the curve of the path from the front door around the side of the house, sticking to the grass.

The cottage was a smaller version of the main house, appearing at a dip in the rolling lawn before the hill dropped down to the beach again. Their home was on a thin finger reaching into the ocean, so the bay was to the left and back behind the guest house, tranquil in the starlight, while the whole rest of the island stretched out from her vantage point.

The woods were sandy, the trees thin but numerous. She saw a flash of light and movement and caught her breath, but suddenly Sasha was bounding out from the woods towards her, tongue hanging out in that doggy grin.

Kate huffed, dropping to a knee to stroke Sasha's back, rub her ears. "How'd you get out, puppy? Huh? I didn't see you sneak out with me."

"It was me."

Kate startled up, turned around to see Reese shadowing her. "Damn it, Reese. Scared the shit out of me."

"It's my watch. Didn't want you to worry," Reese answered, stepping out across the grass. He was wearing the same clothes he'd arrived in - must be his uniform, because these were pretty clean, all things considered. "Everything okay, Agent Beckett?"

She let out a breath. "It's Kate. Just - Kate. And yes. Fine. Couldn't sleep. Is Colin-?"

"He's in there," Reese nodded, eyes narrowing.

Great. Judgment from the driver. "That's where I'm headed," she said clearly. "I'll take Sasha with me for protection, Reese, so don't let me distract you."

He gave her a bland look. "I'm not judging. Kate. I'm supposed to make sure you rest."

Kate groaned, tilting her head back. Her husband was insufferable sometimes. "Reese."

"Yeah, I know. Orders. But how about this? I'll give you fifteen minutes. Then I'll come in after you."

Kate slanted him a look. "Twenty."

He hesitated, rubbing his jaw, but he relented. "Twenty minutes."

She tucked her fingers into the dog's collar and tugged, giving Reese a little wave of her hand as she headed down the path. Sasha trotted easily beside her, all dog tonight, none of that wild wolf in her. Kate was proud of how she'd behaved under pressure, gunfire, explosions, and even scared and running in the forest, she'd come back to them.

"We'll have to get you an extra special treat. Daddy keeps trying to convince me that we should feed you steak. You want steak, Sasha? We can do that. You deserve it."

The house rose out of the faint mist cloaking the dell, the humidity clinging to the grass and obscuring the lines of the cottage. Tudor style here too, single story, and roses blooming in wild disarray around the walls.

Sasha bounded ahead of her and wagged her tail at the door, which told Kate someone was awake inside. She opened the latch and pushed inside to find Colin Hunt sitting up at the kitchen table, drinking tea and eating a sandwich, no one else around.

She smelled peanut butter and her stomach growled.

"Kate," he husked, looking stunned, sandwich halfway to his open mouth.

"Colin," she said, relieved to see him up. "You couldn't sleep?"

"Unconsciousness aside, I don't sleep much," he shrugged.

Neither did Castle. "How are you feeling otherwise?"

"Pretty lousy, thanks."

She grimaced and moved into the homey little kitchen, sank down in the unoccuppied chair. Sasha came with her, settled down at her feet. "How are the stitches?"

"New ones," he said, a little nod. "I'm alive. Which is better than I expected twenty-four hours ago."

"It's only been about twelve hours," she remarked lightly. She didn't know how to tell him about Jolin.

He gave her a sour look and eased back in the chair. "Want one?"

"No, thanks," she answered. "I only came to check on you." And now she was tired again, the walk and the humid air and the reality of Colin at the kitchen table, all of his attitude and brittleness.

"Well, consider me checked. Move on to the next item on your list, Kate."

"It's not like that," she said quietly.

"What is it like?"

"You're - family."

"Family," he muttered. "Right. Well, apologies if I'm not interested in family. Just interested you. But you've got all this, don't you? A whole bloody island. Can't compete."

He was interested in her? No, that was insane. Actually thought he-? No. "You're just - a little confused and probably exhausted, Colin. In the morning it will-"

"No," he cut her off sharply. "Don't do that. Let me feel what I bloody well feel-"

But he stopped, something crawling over his face like shock. She held her breath lest he start up again, his misplaced mooning, but Colin shook his head and groaned.

"Are you okay?" she said, shooting to her feet.

He waved her off, a kind of strangled laugh in his throat. "No, no. It's - nothing. It's very stupid of me, really. I should've realized with the kid here."

"Colin?"

"They're not _my_ damn feelings, are they?" he snarked. She didn't understand; he looked fever bright in the kitchen lamplight. Colin withdrew from the touch of her hand, pushed her back to the table. "Not my feelings. They're his, _his_, loud and echoing in my bloody head. Always had that - but with him it's like a damn open channel."

"What are you talking about?"

"And to make it worse, the little leach is always there, draining it into himself and amplifying it around as well. Bloody hell, no _wonder_ I can't keep damn hands off you."

She stood up slowly and regarded him. "Colin. I think you have a fever."

"No fucking kidding."

"Where is Len? He's supposed to be taking care of you."

"He made me this sandwich. He's really very refreshing. Blank. Inside and out. You should try it."

"Colin? I think you need to go back to bed. All right? Let's get you up and back to bed."

She hoped his room was close. Surely it was. She leaned in and wrapped her arm around his shoulders; he smelled like antiseptic and fever-sweat. He tried to knock her away from him, but she caught the peanut butter sandwich and put it on the table, moved to lift him.

"I'm not a bloody invalid," he muttered. "And don't touch me. Makes it worse. Why it makes it worse, I have no idea, because John Black-Jackson Hunt never thought I was worth any of this, none of it for me, no."

John Black? What did Black have to do with this? "Colin? Just stand up for me, would you? Everything will be fine after you've had some sleep."

"And keep your kid away from me too," he muttered.

Stung, she jerked back reflexively and Hunt swayed, grabbed for her as his knees gave way. He crashed into the table with a moan and slid to the floor right as she tried to catch him, sending Sasha yelping and dancing away and Kate to the ground with Hunt.

The door opened to Reese. "Time's up," he called.

Shit. No kidding. She was suddenly grateful that Castle was a domineering bully. "Reese. Thank God for you."

"You're the only one to ever say so," the man said dryly, moving in to swiftly draw Hunt to his feet.

Kate grunted and got to her knees, used the edge of the table and Reese's proffered hand to get up again.

"You," Reese said, pointing at her. "Sit. Don't move."

"I'm fine," she gritted out.

She ignored his command and instead moved with him down the hall to the bedroom, helped him get Hunt back in bed. The man was still muttering about Black not ever bothering to explain, Jolin thinking he was worthless, James making it worse, and none of it actually coherent.

Reese went down the hall to grab Len to sit watch, and Kate moved back out into the kitchen, suddenly so tired.

She could sleep now. Hunt was mostly fine, if a little scrambled by the events of their crazy night. Her son and husband were asleep in a nice warm room in their island home, and she wanted very badly to be with them. Right this instant.

Reese gripped her arm and tried to propel her forward, but she shook him off.

Only Castle was allowed to do that.

She walked back to the house under her own power, the dog right at her side. Reese left her at the back door, disappearing to go resume his duties. Kate went inside and when she got back to their room in the cool relief of darkness, she couldn't help going first to James.

He was asleep in the same position she had left him in, curled around elephant. She stroked her fingers at his ear and he didn't move, mouth open against the sheet folded under him.

She crawled back into her own bed and laid herself over Castle's warm body.

_A leech, draining all that into him and amplifying it back..._

It was nonsense. He was a little bit obsessed with her and he was fevered and he'd offered to be left behind to save their lives.

It had been just a really terrible long day, but it was over now.

She needed to sleep.

* * *

Castle hushed the boy as he reached for his still-sleeping mother, carried James outside into the hall. The whole place was filled with sunlight, really quite beautiful, and it actually dazzled James enough to make him quit fussing and turn around in Castle's arms.

"Dada?"

"Yeah, sunlight. It's morning. It's pretty."

James laid his head back down on Castle's shoulder, scrunching up against his chest, squishy - as Kate called it. His eyes stayed open though, lashes golden in the light.

Castle walked him down to the kitchen to see what they could do about breakfast. Rice cereal had been in the bag that had gotten blown up in the Land Rover, but the kid could eat scrambled eggs, pieces of toast even.

Jim was in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and a newspaper, though Castle had no idea where the man had found it. He glanced at the date as Jim lifted his head in greeting, had to laugh to himself: _March 23, 1989_.

"Catching up on the Cold War?" Castle chuckled. "And morning."

"Morning. Yeah, found it in the room last night. Thought I'd save it for this morning. How'd you all sleep?"

"Kate must have woken a few times last night," Castle shrugged. "But I was out. And James just woke-"

"Early for him," Jim remarked, glancing at James over the top of his paper. "James, hey there. You couldn't possibly have gotten enough sleep."

Castle should probably hand him off to his grandfather, let him cuddle in peace, but he didn't want to. He wanted his son with him even though it meant making breakfast one-handed.

"Hopefully a good long nap," Castle answered. "You see Reese this morning?"

"Reese is the driver, right? Yeah, he's in the living room on the couch."

Castle carried James into the living room, but Reese had already stood to approach and deliver his report. He even saluted, which James found funny, apparently, because the boy chuckled. Reese gave him a look back that Castle might actually label _fond_.

"Reese, what's the situation?"

"Normal," Reese nodded. He actually offered a finger to James and got the boy to latch on to it, squeezing hard. "Wow, good grip, kid. Everything's fine, sir. You were right - Agent Beckett got up and left the house at 3:49-"

"You don't have to-" Castle winced and waved him off. "My wife isn't being - shit. I guess I am being a little overbearing. Okay. She got up, I know. She's fine. It's fine."

"Hunt had an incident. We - I got him back in bed."

_We._ An incident with Kate. He would have to figure out a way to deal with Colin Hunt before this - this - whatever it was - took him over. "All right. Thank you. How's the team?"

"Fine, sir. Very fine. The control room is right through there - first door past the stairs - monitors are up, everything running smoothly. We have the motion sensors offline because of those damn foxes. After you get rid of them, it'll be-"

"No," Castle said grimly. "Rethink the motion sensors. Find me a new way."

"But, sir-"

"A new way, Reese. The foxes stay."

Reese set his jaw but didn't argue.

Castle shifted James higher in his grip, his shoulder giving him that dull ache. "Go upstairs, find an empty room. Sleep. You deserve to stand down. I'll do the following of my wife."

"Yes, sir," Reese said, though the combativeness had drained right out of him.

"Thank you, Reese."

Reese nodded and then winked and gave a salute to James, making him chuckle all over again. James actually watched him leave, and Castle stood in the living room holding his son while he mulled it over.

He should leave James here to get breakfast, but it was early yet. The kid wasn't quite awake, still droopy and - squishy - and Castle needed to have a talk with Colin Hunt.

"Hey, James Beckett. I really should go talk to your uncle. How hungry are you?"

James cracked a yawn so wide that Castle could see the new little white tooth coming up at the back of his gums.

Damn, and the kid hadn't even cried about that one.

"You're a pretty special kid, you know that?" he said softly. He kissed James's forehead and hugged him tight, wondering rather suddenly when had been the last time he'd done it. Yesterday? In the middle of everything had he done anything that had made an impression other than yelling at the boy to not drum against the glass?

He didn't want his son to wonder, ever, didn't want to let so much time go by between some kind of physical understanding of how much his father loved him. Words weren't enough.

James was going to know. James was always going to know.

"All right, then you're with me, little wolf. Fall in."

* * *

When Castle entered the guest house, it looked to be in crisis mode. Four agents were in the kitchen, including the paramedic Len, and when he saw Castle with James, he came over and tried to head him off.

"What's going on?" Castle said sharply. "Why do you need a control center in here?"

Len rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. "It's Hunt. He's got an infection; it's bad. I'm trying to coordinate getting him meds here."

"Fuck," Castle croaked, swaying where he stood.

"Uck!"

Len gave James a startled laugh and slapped a hand over his mouth when it came. "Sorry. Oops. Bad word, kid."

"Bad words really aren't what we're concerned with here," Castle said. "Why didn't you tell me he was this bad?"

"He wasn't. He wasn't at _all_ when he went to bed. And then sometime before dawn, he wakes me up, says he needs peanut butter. So I made him a damn sandwich and went back upstairs. And then-"

"And then Kate came in," Castle said, letting the man know he already had heard. "And now he's got an infection?"

Len nodded. "I've been in touch with Nantucket. They've got what we need. It's just a matter of getting it-"

"Take the houseboat," Castle said quickly. "Fucking hell, get a helicopter. There's one on Nantucket; I checked that ages ago. Get it over here with the meds he needs."

Len stopped, stared a moment, and then snapped back to it. "Yes, sir. Will do." He moved to make it happen, but Castle caught his sleeve, shifting James again in his grip.

"Is he awake, lucid?"

"Awake at times. Mostly lucid. His fever is pretty high. He's having a damn strong reaction."

Peanut butter in the middle of the night. Kate waking and going to him. The infection.

Boyd had told him once - _lipoproteins_. Eat eggs, he'd said. Even Castle's own father had made insinuations about it to Beckett too. That Castle should be eating eggs.

"You've got food in the fridge, right?" Castle asked, shifting James again. His arm ached where the joint had been bruised by the bullet's lodging into soft tissue, and from the healing process itself - sped up.

"We've got food, sir, yes."

"Good. You get the helicopter here - whatever it costs, whatever it is you have to say. Well, shit, if you can at all, don't invoke the CIA. Otherwise-"

"I understand. We all understand."

He nodded and moved towards the fridge, a few guys having to make way for him as he did. He opened it up and pulled out a carton of eggs, shifting James again. "Looks like you get breakfast first after all."

James pulled back and glanced around the room, watching all the busy men with their guns and dark uniforms and their take-charge attitudes. And then he put his hands together and clapped, beaming at Castle.

"You hear that, guys?" Castle said to the room, turning away from the stove with an egg in one hand and James in the other. "My son thinks you deserve a round of applause. I agree. You haven't had much rest, and I know this isn't what you signed up for. Keep doing what you're doing - we all appreciate it."

* * *

"James." Castle winced and caught the boy's hand. "Yeah, I know it's super fun to throw our food around the room, but seriously, Beckett, let's leave some for Colin when he wakes up."

James gave him a crazy look and wriggled out of Castle's lap, back to the floor, though he kept the piece of egg in his fist. How dirty was the floor?

"Oh, fuck it. Crawl around. The cleaning crew has been in and you're super."

Kate would smack him for that. But it was _true_. James had yet to spike a fever, let alone get all the regular colds and bugs. They had even taken James to a toddler gym thing in the city, let him crawl around with all the other babies, swapping fluids like crazy, and not a thing. Not even a hint of sickness.

Boyd and Logan had been all over that one. Logan had said his own son had gone to a kid's birthday party at that place when he'd been two or three and had come back with vomiting and explosive diarrhea, out from preschool for two weeks. But not James. James had been fine.

Speaking of, James had dropped his egg onto the rug and he leaned down, ate his breakfast right off the floor.

"Oh, hell. You might as well lick the floor, James Beckett," he muttered. James turned and beamed back at him, and Castle winced, got down to pluck a stray carpet fuzz from his lips. "Your mom would kill me. Your Papa would kill me. Don't actually lick the floor."

"Can't hurt him."

Castle froze, and then he managed to control his face and he turned around, stood up to go back to his chair beside Colin Hunt's bed. The man was awake, head at an awkward angle to watch James.

"Can't hurt him," Castle repeated, sitting again. "You, though. Looking pretty hurt there, little brother."

"Your concern for my well-being is overwhelming."

Castle dropped his elbows on his knees and leaned in, studied the man before him in the bed. Face flushed, eyes glassy, hair limp and greasy. "It's actually pretty high up there, Colin. Like it or not, you're blood. You risked your own life to save my - to save Kate's. And for purely selfish reasons, I'd like to know what you know. So call me heavily invested."

Colin closed his eyes.

Castle studied him a moment longer and then left him alone, turned instead to pick his son up off the floor. He had to pry open James's fists, swipe the dirt and dust from his palms, pluck the stray crumb out of his fingers.

"No, we don't eat that," Castle muttered. "Can't hurt you, but let's not make a habit of testing our limits. Mommy gets upset when we do that."

"I bet she does."

Castle went still, thumbs in the centers of his son's palms, little hands in his, and he tucked his cheek down next to James's, reminded himself of the need for control.

"These little cryptic remarks you're making about my son," Castle said slowly, lifting his head. "That's one of those things I want you alive to explain."

Colin groaned. "She told you about that, I suppose. Of course she did. Afraid of what she-"

"She didn't tell me anything," Castle interrupted, completely unwilling to hear the rest of that. "She's still asleep. She needs it; she came and visited you during the middle of the night."

"Despite my best efforts, her visit to me is not why she needs her sleep."

Damn straight. "I don't need your assurances, Colin." James struggled in his arms and he released his son straight to Hunt's mattress, just for the hell of it.

James crawled to the foot of the bed, Hunt wincing with every bounce, and then Castle sighed and reached for his son, dragged him off again. That had been low, mean of him.

James whined something and tried to wriggle down. "No," Castle said. "Sit with me."

"Dada!"

"Yeah, I was being mean. But we're gonna be nice now, wolf. Understand? Sit with me and chew on this." Castle grabbed a piece of toast from the stack he'd brought in with the plate of eggs, handed it to James. The boy babbled happily and grabbed it, sank back in Castle's arms.

When Castle glanced up at Hunt, the man was quickly averting his eyes. He looked all right despite Castle's petty act of revenge, despite the infection that had him a sweaty mess. Castle shifted in the chair and laid a hand over James's stomach to catch the toast when he dropped it - which he would - and he studied Hunt for a moment longer.

"So let's get to it," Castle said finally. "Colin. Look at me."

Hunt closed his eyes.

"All right. Enough." Castle leaned forward, punched Hunt in the shoulder - only a little hard. Colin grunted and opened his eyes, wounded indignation. Castle shrugged, pointed to himself. "Big brother. So that means I get to beat up on you when you're being a little bitch."

"Shut the hell up."

"No sympathy from me when you're acting like this. We both know you have it bad. For my - for Kate. You want her. I get it - that's probably hereditary or some shit, considering how obsessed Black is over her. So-"

"Don't you dare make this about that bastard's-"

"Yeah," Castle said softly. "Yeah. I like that response. You passed."

"What?" Hunt growled, eyes snapping to his. "I _passed_. You're a fucking-"

"Uck!"

Hunt's jaw dropped.

Castle cracked, laughing as he sat back in the chair again. James was giving them his shy smile around a gnawed on corner of his toast, and Castle rubbed a hand over the boy's head. His son. Good boy. Just the reason he'd brought the kid in here.

A little more restraint, a little comic relief. He cupped the side of James's face and kissed his cheek, fast, because he knew Hunt was watching and he wasn't trying to rub it in.

_Look, I made a baby with the woman you think you're in love with._

Damn. Hunt was fucked.

Castle lifted his head, put his elbow on the arm of the chair, fist under his chin. "Okay, so we got that out of the way. You're in love with her. I get it. Don't _like_ it, but that's probably the one place where you and I are completely sympatico."

"Fucking hell," Hunt breathed.

"Yeah. No kidding. The point is that we're on the same side. Her side. So you need to spill it."

Hunt's jaw worked but he didn't say anything against it.

"You want to start talking, Colin? Or you want me to keep making blind stabs at it in the dark?"

"At what."

Castle sighed, brushed crumbs of toast off his hand and James's front. He was still in his footed pajamas - the only pajamas that had been in the go-bag - little frogs leaping knee to knee.

"Fine," Hunt growled. "The damn kid is-"

"Don't curse him," Castle said quietly, trying not to tense. "Don't _damn_ my son."

"Bloody hell," Hunt muttered. "Forget it. I'm not saying another word."

"You said something to Kate last night," Castle probed. Hunt had admitted it himself, thinking Castle already knew. Whatever it was. "You said..."

"It was fever-talk."

"It was the most honest you've been with us."

"I've been honest!" Hunt croaked, struggling in bed. Castle leaned forward, one arm gripping James, and he pushed Hunt back down, eyebrow raised.

"You _know_ something. John Black - Jackson Hunt, whatever you want to call him - he has fucking played us all. Off each other, for his own purposes, to meet his own ends. Aren't you so damn tired of being played?"

"Yeah," Colin rasped. "So bloody tired."

"He tried to kill her. Kate. He wants her put down - like a _dog_, Colin. He has _that_ little respect for her, that little care. He regards her as something rabid, an animal he can't contain. I am doing _everything_ in my power to keep that fucking bastard away from her."

"Bloody Christ," Hunt moaned.

"You were doing his dirty work because you didn't know any better, but even then, Colin, even then, you were helping us. You've saved her life a few times now, you know. You don't have to be in his damn pocket."

"Stop," Hunt croaked. "Stop. Just. Stop."

Castle knew when he had the advantage and he pressed it now. "You ought to live your life on your own terms, Colin. Don't let him win. Don't let him touch her. Don't let him orchestrate this whole damn thing, setting the Collective on Kate's trail, hoping Jolin could do what he couldn't get done."

"It's not about that," Colin said tonelessly. He lifted a hand and rubbed his eyes. "It's not even that at all."

"So tell me what it is."

"It's the - it's the side effects."

"Side effects. Of the regimen? Of the-"

"Look, I didn't bloody well have a father to explain this shit to me. Jolin thought I was worthless with it. So give me a minute."

Castle sighed, glanced down at James. The boy was gnawing on his toast, shoving it to the back of his gums where his tooth was coming in. He'd started drooling all down the front of his pajama top, over Castle's own hand.

"Look, this is going to sound bloody nutters," Colin muttered. "And I don't know how to start."

"Just start. You'd be surprised."

"Whatever the program does for you, however it's affected you - well you know I got his DNA in me too. And... it wasn't enough. I didn't have what it took. Jolin tricked him, you know, with me. Tried to fucking blackmail him, but he didn't care one way or another."

Castle was ready to wring Hunt's neck. What did he care about Colin's childhood? He needed to get _on_ with it already. "So you're not super. Fine. And?"

"Kate said it shaped your blood cells differently. That - the mitochondria - they do extra things you don't even know yet."

Castle was mildly pissed Kate had told Hunt so much, but the revelation of Hunt's blood had necessitated a few calculated revelations. "It's one of the reasons I haven't killed John Black outright. You do realize that. Kate will never - if she thinks I might need the medical knowledge in his head, that James might need him, then she won't let anyone touch him."

Colin opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. "That... explains it," he murmured. "Hell."

"So yes, we don't know everything that my - our - altered DNA can do. What it's already done. That's how - how Kate got so sick in Paris. We didn't know enough. And I got her fucking pregnant and we fucked around with all the individual elements, thinking we had it covered, and I nearly killed her. God damn it."

"Thought you said not to damn your kid."

Castle grunted, pressed his hand over his eyes. "I need information. All I can get. We were hoping to have Jolin on our side. So anything you know, Colin, anything - might be the thing that convinces her_ we don't need Black anymore."_

"Thing is, Castle. Thing is - you might."

"Why. _Why?_"

"Because he knows all the pieces; he's got it all in his head. What he did, how he made us different."

"But that doesn't-"

"It does. I never told either of them, I was older when I figured it out, but - but it's done something to me. And maybe the boy. I'm sorry. I think the boy has it too. I don't-"

Castle lowered his hand to the top of James's head, heart pounding. "What. What has it done."

"I don't - know," Hunt croaked. "He never wanted me. I just - it can't be real. This isn't a thing people can _do_."

And suddenly everything was made clear.

Castle remembered a decade ago when the media had started flapping about some book that claimed to be a true story, and then a movie had been made about it: The Men Who Stare At Goats. The link between covert ops training and the paranormal. His father had made more than a few comments and that had stuck in Castle's head because when did his father ever care about pop culture?

"Colin Hunt, are you telling me you have - fucking mind powers?"

"Bloody hell, Castle."

He waited.

"_No._" Hunt lifted a hand and gave Castle a weak punch back. "No. You're the one with all the damn powers. I just get a fucking headache."


	10. Chapter 10

**Close Encounters**

* * *

"Kate."

She floated up, slowly, though her body was so heavy she thought she might sink.

"Kate."

She couldn't quite surface.

"Sorry, love, but I need you to wake up."

And then a warm, wriggling body was in her face, wet mouth at her neck, babbling sounds in her ear. She automatically unfolded her arm to the baby, opened her eyes more slowly.

Castle had let James crawl across the blankets to her; he stroked the hair back from her face and traced the edge of her ear. "I know you're tired. But can you come with me for a couple hours?"

"We going skinny dipping?" she mumbled.

He chuckled and it made James try to copy him, a little echo. Echo. Her happy son babbling her name and worming closer.

"No, love. Not this morning. But it's eight-"

"Eight," she groaned. She should be up.

"And I need to talk to you about a new development."

Kate dragged her body upright through sheer force of will alone, clutching James in her arms as he hung from her like a sloth. He was cuddling again today too, though in fits and starts, laying his head against her shoulder for a moment before popping back up again.

"New development?"

"I talked with Colin. He's not feeling so great, but he answered some questions about the Collective."

"He - did?" She'd been working at him before they'd had to rush out of their home. She could have sworn that Colin Hunt hadn't had any detailed information about the Collective.

"We came to an agreement," Castle admitted.

She moved to try to stand - just a pallet on the floor last night and it had been comfortable enough with Castle as a buffer, but now her ribs ached.

"No, stay," he said, holding out a hand to her. "You're-"

"Gotta get off the floor," she winced. Castle reached for James and took him back, gripped her by the upper arm to help her up. She swayed once on her feet, but she got her bearings quickly.

"Want breakfast?"

"Coffee. And the couch. Unless one of the guys took the couch."

"I got your coffee made and the couch is free. James, don't chew on that."

She glanced over and saw James was gnawing on the leather strap of Castle's over-the-shoulder holster.

It was that kind of development? She had thought the island was safe-

"You're leaving," she croaked, coming to a halt right at the door.

Castle eyed her.

"You are _not_ leaving me here alone," she told him. "Don't even begin to think-"

"I need to go back and see Logan and Boyd."

"You can fucking call them," she hissed.

"Kate-"

"No." She crossed her arms over her chest, felt the twinge in her side as she pulled at the gash. "I am forbidding it. I never - I usually am the very first person to head right back out there, but no. Not this time. Not you. The Collective-"

"Kate, will you just listen to what I learned from Colin before you decide?"

She opened her mouth to say _hell no, you're not leaving_ but she'd asked him to listen to her and he was only asking for the same.

_There's another way_, he had begged her in Tunisia. She didn't have to throw her neck at the knife. And now if she wanted him to find another way, then she would have to listen too. She would have to give him his shot.

"Coffee first," she growled, turning around and yanking open the bedroom door.

Her back was killing her. They needed some damn furniture.

* * *

She stared down into her empty coffee mug and tried to fathom the abrupt change in perspective. New development, he'd said. Well, no fucking kidding.

James whined at her shoulder, gnawing on a teething ring. She couldn't process this. No wonder Castle was suited up and ready to roll.

"Shit," she moaned, tilting her head back on the couch. "Shit, _Colin_. I can't believe he did that."

"I can."

She struggled upright again, passed James off to his father. "I want to hear it from him. From the source. I want to see his face when he says it."

Castle didn't protest, just helped her to her feet and got her moving. She deposited the mug on the kitchen counter as they passed through to the back door, Castle still holding James against his chest.

"Should he-?"

"He's fine," Castle said. "I think Hunt likes him."

Well, that was two for two today. She'd thought for sure Colin had been annoyed by James. "Take my hand?" she asked.

"You feel that bad?"

"Um. Just. Trying to be proactive for once." For his sake, she was trying to be careful with herself. "The path between the houses is sandy and I'm tired."

"Sand is harder," he said, as if it had just occurred to him that trudging through the sand was work. "I got you."

"But don't pull on your shoulder," she told him, their fingers lacing as they came off the back porch.

"It's past that stage. Needs to be worked to keep the newly healed tissue from scarring inside."

"Oh." That fast. Wow. She knew but she also hadn't known. "You know, this is maybe the first time since we met that you've been consistently on the regimen as it was meant to be."

"Hate to say it, but I can tell," he sighed. "I feel - fuck - I feel invincible, and that should scare me, but it doesn't. You were right. I need it. It helps me."

She had to chew furiously on the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning.

"Don't get cocky," he grumbled.

Kate laughed, and James laughed with her, tossed his teething ring off into the sand. She shook her head at him. "Too bad for you, little parasite. It's gone now. You're gonna regret it."

"I brought Colin some toast," Castle shrugged. "Probably still there. He can chew on that."

They both stepped right over the sand-caked teething ring, kept moving. James grunted and leaned out in Castle's arms, but Kate put her mouth against the boy's reaching fingers, gobbled on them until he giggled.

"You brought Colin breakfast?" she said then, just now realizing.

"Ah."

"That wonderfully unhelpful noise of yours," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Why, exactly, were you so nice to Colin Hunt?"

They had arrived at the front door of the cottage, and Castle opened it for her, smiling softly back. "Unhelpful on purpose. I didn't want to worry you, but Colin woke asking for peanut butter last night. It occurred to me that maybe he should be getting eggs. A lot of eggs. So no, Kate, I wasn't being nice. I was shoving eggs down his gullet as fast they'd go."

She laughed, surprised, a little touched, though she shouldn't have been. Castle was a good man, tender-hearted in all the ways his father had tried to break him of, and she loved him.

"Eggs and toast," she said, touching his chest as she moved inside the cottage. Len was there, but the rest of the place was empty.

"They're coptering in some meds for his infection. He's going to be fine. But I thought the proteins couldn't hurt."

"Is that why you want to leave?" she asked, turning to look at him as he entered behind her.

"No." He scowled furiously and she knew it was because of her question. But that wasn't how she'd meant it. She didn't mean, _Castle, leave us here to save Colin Hunt's life_, because like fuck she wanted him to leave at all. She just wanted to know what Castle was thinking.

The medic on their security team was rising from the kitchen table, looking at them expectantly.

"Len, he awake?" Kate asked, nodding towards the bedroom.

"In and out. Fever is steady. Drugs should be here in an hour."

"Good," Castle said, shifting James to his other arm, the weak arm - but it needed exercise, he'd said. "We're going in to talk with him again. When the meds get here, let me know."

"You got it," Len nodded, sinking back down to the table.

Kate led the way down the hall, her son leaning out from Castle's arms and trying to touch her, so close was Castle following. She felt the little fingers in her shirt, clinging, and she turned at the door to kiss his palm.

"I can hold you when we sit down. Can you wait?"

"Mama."

"That's a yes," Castle said, nudging her with a knee. "Come on. Let's go. You need to hear it, so let's hear it."

She opened the door to Hunt's room.

He was awake on the bed and waiting for her.

* * *

Castle wondered if she kept James in her arms as a buffer, or maybe simply as a reminder. James was being good, keeping still in his mother's arms, cuddling and chewing on toast, though he kept looking to Castle as if to make sure.

_You're doing good_, Castle thought. _Proud of you._

His son was nine months old; he didn't know what proud meant. He didn't hear the words Castle thought his direction. He was hitting milestones in advance of most babies his age, but it wasn't a reason to worry. None of it was _worry_; it was just - a development.

They would take it as it came, and they'd learn to be what he needed.

"Colin, Castle said you lied to me."

Well, fuck, she had gone for the soft underbelly, hadn't she? He hadn't been expecting that.

Hunt closed his eyes, nostrils flaring. All of them in the room together, wasn't that what Colin had said? A fucking headache.

"Colin, she wants to hear it from you."

He opened his eyes and turned a weary look on Kate. "I wasn't particularly forthcoming, no."

"And now you are?" Kate snapped. Castle realized it had _hurt_ her, Colin's lies. She'd known the man hadn't given them everything, but maybe she'd been more willing to believe than Castle had known.

"Now I am," Hunt sighed. "What I told Castle is the truth. I was with them in New York."

"With them," she stated flatly. James laid his hand on her arm and patted, and fucking hell, how could Castle think the kid didn't know? He knew _something_, if only that his mother was tense, and he felt that at the very least.

"I was with the Collective agents and Diane Jolin in the city," Colin said. "I was playing both sides. Black and Jolin. CIA and Collective. Well, until Black got booted from the CIA."

"For what purpose?" Kate cried out. "What did you think you were doing?"

Hunt's eyes slid to his, and Castle blinked once. They had agreed to keep James out of it.

"They're my bloody parents, Kate. What do you think? I've had my own brand of specialness," Hunt snorted. "But not as they wanted; they passed me back and forth - damaged goods. All I got was side effects of this fucked up blood that Jackson Hunt - that's your John Black - _he _never cared to follow up on. _She_ was doing the research, and using my blood as her failure."

"What do you mean?" Kate croaked. She turned a flashing glance back to him. Castle had only gotten through that first point - that Hunt had been with the Collective when he'd run from them and wound up on their doorstep - when she had insisted on getting it straight from the horse's mouth. "What is he talking about, Castle? What side effects - what's wrong?"

"It's not anything wrong," he told her firmly. "He just experienced a lot of the regimen without Black as his guide. It was Jolin - keeping track and... keeping secrets from Black."

"And I've had other issues come up," Hunt said then, drawing Kate's attention again. "But Diane Jolin - she was the one who shared her findings, she was the one doing the research and asking questions Black never cared to know."

"Black never-?"

"Never," Hunt growled, lifting a hand to stab a finger towards Castle. "He got everything. I got nothing."

"Oh, Colin-"

"But La Lune. She wanted to know. So I did as she asked. I went to Black and spied."

"Your mother. You didn't tell her about - about Castle, did you?" Kate sighed, her face bleak. "Please tell me you didn't give her all our secrets."

"No," Hunt said. Castle believed him. If only because no one with Hunt's - abilities - could ever trust a research scientist even if the woman _had _been his own fucking mother. "No, Kate, I never told her about Castle, never told her that Black had a favorite. It was - my mission, my own mission. I wanted answers that Black wouldn't give me, and this was the only way."

"But he knew Diane was doing her own experiments, didn't he? That she was using you."

"He did. And he used that to his advantage - and I used him. He had the other side of things, you know? He _had_ been successful in his human experiments - he had Castle. So I played them both. Have been playing them both."

"For answers," Kate whispered. "I - understand."

Castle had known that would resonate with her. "Go on, Colin. Tell her about the Collective."

Hunt was struggling to sit up straighter, though his face was still a mask of tight control. "The Collective has always been this precarious balance of war-mongerers and hippy scientists. The hawks want to take Jolin's research to the next level, but the leadership has always been against it. They've been in charge. Largely because of Diane Jolin."

"She was leadership? Black told us she was one scientist of many."

"She was their leading scientist," Hunt said, shaking his head. "But she was so good that her developments were enough to keep the war-birds appeased. John Black has told me straight to my face that some of those 'developments' were things he fed her. God knows they never thought _I _was of any use to them."

"So Black was doing his best to keep the Collective peaceful, unthreatening even," Castle filled in for her. "Manipulating everyone in sight, just to keep it all to himself."

Kate flashed him a look. "And keep you safe."

He didn't comment. He had serious doubts that Black's motives had been so altruistic, though his own continuing existence was definitely part of the plan. Castle was Black's greatest achievement, unparalleled, unrivaled.

"Jolin fed the Collective breakthroughs in sleep-deprivation-study and mental acuity, as well as rudimentary limb regenesis. She kept her bosses happy and they in turn funded her more out-there research. They ignored me."

"Out there?" Kate murmured. Hunt gave Castle another look, but this was all fair game. He didn't want to keep Kate in the dark, he just wanted this shit about their son staying well clear of it. She did _not_ need to think that James was next on some fucking program. No. James was out of this.

Colin cleared his throat; he looked sweat-drenched with fever but he was trying. Castle had to give him that. The man shifted on the bed. "Diane Jolin was almost exclusively interested in the paranormal aspects of the regimen."

"The... paranormal?" Kate asked, voice tailing up at the end of her question. She gave Castle a fast, incomprehensible look.

"I don't glow in the dark," Castle muttered.

Kate's laugh was a little breathy but her hand came out to grip his knee. "I would have noticed that by now."

"Kate," he started, wanting to do this part himself. Be damn sure that James never entered her mind. She was already so hellbent on him getting every last resource, even if it meant killing herself to do it. Castle didn't want to give her one more reason to think she needed to wreck herself for this.

"You sound like you're delivering bad news," she said tightly.

"It kind of is," he apologized, grimacing. "Diane Jolin was interested in telepathic powers, moving things with the mind; she wanted to 'awaken' these characteristics in the human genome, and well, within herself as well."

"That's..."

"Crazy," Hunt muttered. Though he was proof to the contrary, at least a little. "She was fucking insane, Kate. She'd been taking the regimen for years, small doses, trying it out, trying to _open her mind_, she said. She wouldn't on me - she said I'd already failed, but she shot up her own veins. At first it was nothing, but when Castle wounded her in France, she had her research assistants bring the serum to her in the hospital."

Kate groaned. "She took it. I knew it. She took the regimen."

"And it fucking fried her brain," Hunt muttered, rubbing a hand through his hair and tugging on the ends. "I - I wasn't trying to - she wanted to hunt you down, Kate. She thought you had - done it - done it telepathically. She said you didn't have the musculature to have beaten John Black like he'd been, and that you must have tossed him around with your _mind_."

"Holy fuck," Kate whispered.

"She lost it. I came with her to New York because I thought - thought to keep her from getting to you. I thought I could convince her. But she got worse; she was obsessed, stalking you, and I knew I had to get away and warn you. Both. Warn you both."

Castle swallowed hard, realizing too late the big thing they hadn't told Colin Hunt since arriving on the island. Fuck. How could he have forgotten? "Hunt. Colin," he started. Kate was looking at him, horrified. But he had to. "Brother. She's dead."

"I felt the bloody concussion, didn't I?" Colin snapped. "I know she is."

"No," Kate said. "No, Colin. Not in the truck. She was the one hunting us in the woods."

"What."

Castle clenched his fists. "She was the one who lured us - it was Diane Jolin in the woods. I shot her. I killed her man and then when she came after him, I shot her and I killed her."

Colin stared at the mattress beside his hand, pressed flat to the bedding.

James squirmed in Kate's arms and wriggled up to stand on her thighs, hanging on to her shirt with little fists, his face right in hers. "Mama?"

Castle's heart flipped. He reached out and took James from her unsteady hands, cupped the boy's head to kiss him. He felt like shit; he knew Kate must feel worse. "Give Mommy a break, wolf. You can sit with me while Mommy talks with Uncle Colin."

"Colin," Kate murmured. "You were stabbed-"

"She did that. And. Her goons tried to get me as I escaped."

There was a long moment of silence. Castle thought it didn't really do Hunt any good to remind him of how fucking crazy his mother had been - it was still his mother. But Hunt finally lifted his gaze and looked at them each in turn.

As if trying to decide. "That's not the important part," Colin said. "Castle. Tell her."

He took a slow breath. "Kate, it's not just that Diane Jolin was experimenting with telepathic powers - as insane as that is - it's that the Collective's leadership used to believe in her."

Kate sat up stiffly. "And do they still? Did they at all? Because she _knew_ me."

"No," Colin said from the bed.

Castle glanced his way, a wry grimace on his lips. Apparently Hunt wanted to be the one to give her the good news - just not the bad.

Colin ignored him, eyes on Kate. "No, they _didn't_ believe her. They saw she'd lost it, that she had taken her own deadly medicine. The leaders of the Collective were cutting ties, abandoning her, because sticking with her meant they had sided with the losing team. Every scrap of information she sent back to them - it didn't get through to anyone in power."

Kate was studying Hunt rather shrewdly, Castle thought. And then she narrowed her eyes at Colin and said, "And how do you know that, Colin? Why did her men attack you as you _escaped_? If you had truly been on her side, then her men - men who were _not_ crazy - wouldn't have thought they needed deadly force. Not on someone they thought was on their side."

Whoa, shit. This was not what Colin Hunt had been telling Castle.

"Colin," she called. "Did the _Collective_ ask you to keep tabs on Jolin? Did the Collective ask you to make sure she didn't cause them any trouble?"

"Uck!" James shouted.

"Fuck is _right,_" Castle growled, standing up in the chair. "You didn't _tell_ me you were fucking around with the Collective."

Colin Hunt looked so damn furious - and so amazingly defeated. He was helpless in a bed and he'd been caught out lying to them again.

"Fine," he tried to yell. But his voice was weak and thready. "Fine. Fine, I was fucking with the Collective too. I _had_ to be - just to get _anything_ at all, just to stay bloody well alive and ahead of the game. John Black is going to murder me in my sleep one of these days, don't think I don't know it, and I needed _allies_."

"Well, fuck you," Kate snapped. "Fuck you for not trusting me. I _told_ you I'd come back for you, I told you that you were fucking family, and you're _still_ fucking with me?"

"Not fucking you the way I'd like."

Castle reached out to _hurt_ him, but James crawled up his chest, arms and legs digging into his ribs and collarbone, babbling for attention, excited by the heightened tension in the room. Completely halting Castle's progress.

Damn it.

"You're right; you need allies," Kate was hissing. "And that's _us_. We are your allies. You keep lying like this and it makes it damn hard to convince my husband to _stay_ your ally. Do you not _get _that?"

"I have _no one_," Hunt growled. He was struggling upright, trying to look a little more in control. Castle, just because he could, just because it would show Hunt up, leaned in and _helped_ him sit up straighter. Hunt's whole face flushed deep crimson and he looked like he wanted to fucking punch Castle.

"You have no one?" Castle said. He wanted to do more than punch Hunt. "You have - for reasons I don't understand - managed to get my wife on your side, Colin. You think that's nothing - that she's no one? You have so little regard-"

"No!"

"Then don't act like a craven fool," Castle said. His voice was deadly calm, but he would gladly break this man's bones to prove his point. "Kate is being entirely too generous, and she trusts - she _trusts_ you when she trusts so very few. Be worthy of it."

Hunt looked like he was struggling for air, struggling, just - struggling in every way. Castle stepped back, releasing the man, and he shifted James higher in his grip.

He turned to Kate. "I'm going to take him out. Needs to be changed. You do what you can with this one."

She blinked, entirely taken by surprise he saw.

Castle reached out his free hand and cupped the side of her face, leaned in to touch his mouth to hers, James snuggled between them. "Be careful, love. He's not who he seems."

"I know who he is," she whispered.

He wasn't sure that was as encouraging as she'd meant it to be.

* * *

By the time Hunt had finished telling her everything, the medicine had arrived. Len came into the room with the needle and Kate lowered Hunt's hand back to the bed, stood from her spot in the chair. She touched Len's shoulder as she left. "Let me know how this works, would you?"

"Castle said to update him-"

"I know you're reporting to him. But me as well."

Len looked confused but he didn't argue with her, he just moved to the bedside to administer the injection. Which apparently went in the ass.

So Kate left him to it, shutting the door behind her. Castle wasn't in the kitchen, and she assumed he'd gone back to the house.

She was tired.

Kate sank down to the kitchen table, laid her head on her crossed arms, closed her eyes. This wasn't a good tired. This was the kind of tired she'd had in Europe after nearly dying. Whatever recovery she'd managed had been wiped out yesterday, her reserves zapped to zero again, and being upright was beyond her.

She should call Castle. He wouldn't like it if she kept trying, pushing.

She lifted her head and studied the command center that had once been a perfectly nice kitchen table. There was a phone just within reach and she grabbed it, not caring whose it was, surprised when it allowed her to make an emergency call. Most of the CIA phones didn't allow unauthorized calls.

Castle answered on the first ring. "Len?"

"No, it's me," she sighed.

"Kate. You need me at the cottage, babe?"

"Please."

"I'll be there in thirty seconds."

She laughed softly. "You don't need to run."

"I'm not far," he said, his voice rich over the phone line. "James is with your dad."

"Okay," she sighed. "Wake me when you get here."

She was just so tired. She laid her head back down on her arms and closed her eyes.

He really would have to wake her.

* * *

Castle crouched before the kitchen chair, reached up to softly stroke the hair off her face. Kate looked exhausted, and he had no doubt yesterday had been beyond her.

But she'd done it anyway, still standing after many had fallen.

He leaned in and kissed her, lightly, gently, waiting for her eyes to struggle open. She sucked in a stuttering breath when she saw him and tried to lift her head, arms reaching for him.

Castle took her embrace, rocked on the balls of his feet as she pitched forward into him. "Hey, honey. What's wrong?"

"I feel like shit," she mumbled, her body compacting smaller and smaller.

He cupped the back of her head and arranged her closer, got an arm under her as he stood up again. She mewled something he couldn't understand and his heart twisted. He sank into the chair she'd abandoned, cradling her.

"How bad?" he asked. "Too heavy to breathe?"

"I can breathe," she promised, but she sounded so _sad_.

Oh. Damn it. Colin Hunt. He'd betrayed her trust, he'd _hurt_ her because she had made the decision for their whole family to trust the man, and she was already so far past exhausted that it had wrecked her. Castle could kill his brother with his bare hands for hurting her.

"You want me to take you to the couch? You can sleep."

"Yeah," she cried, arms drawing around his neck. "I feel so bad." She had her face pressed against his neck and now he felt her tears. She wasn't crying exactly, just a few tears squeezed out. But he was _really_ going to make Colin hurt.

"Oh, Kate," he whispered. "It's gonna be okay, honey. You'll feel better after you've had a few days to recover."

"I _hate_ feeling this bad," she moaned.

"I know."

"I want to go down to the beach."

"I know."

"I want to be me again."

"You are you," he promised, stroking the hair back from her neck. "You're all we need. James is squishy and now you're squishy too and we can all be squishy together."

"You won't leave."

Fuck. But- "I won't leave."

"You'll be safe here."

"We're all safe here," he hushed. "We're safe. I'm safe."

She shuddered out a long breath and he realized she'd fallen back asleep. He stood as carefully as he could and he began the long walk back to the house.


	11. Chapter 11

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

"Quiet, wolf," he murmured, carrying James into the living room. "Mommy's sleeping."

Jim had been keeping the boy occupied all afternoon to give Kate a chance to sleep, and she was still asleep now, curled on the couch. She had barely moved and now the afternoon sunlight was drawing gold and red across her face.

Castle knelt down beside the couch, kept James from reaching out. "See? Here she is. But she's asleep."

"Mm, awake."

He laughed softly and watched as Kate slowly opened her eyes, lips pulling in, tongue catching her bottom lip. She didn't move her spot, she just traced her gaze over them.

"Hey," he said softly. "Thought you'd want to get in on bath time."

"Oh, I do. It's that late?"

"It's that late," he whispered.

"Is the water running?"

"Your dad went up to start his bath."

She hummed something and her eyes closed again.

"Mama." James leaned out for her, but Castle caught him again, kept the boy against his chest.

"Wait, James Beckett. Wait a minute and let Mommy wake up."

"Will you crawl in with me?" she said instead, eyes flickering.

"Yeah, of course," Castle said, ducking in to kiss her forehead. "Here, take him with you and I'll get us adjusted."

With his help, Kate shifted a little more upright, James spilling onto the couch with a giggle and crawling into her lap. Castle got his body behind hers, the wide cushions making an ideal spot. They should have slept here last night instead of on the floor.

Castle got her situated with her head at his stomach and her torso over his thigh, James in the cradle made by his other leg. His own head hit the arm of the couch, but when he tried to pull her up to rest on his chest, she waved him off.

"You good like that?" he murmured.

"Mm, yeah. Don't move me."

"Okay," he said easily, laying his hand at the back of her head. She had one of her arms hooked around James and it didn't take long for her to rouse, lift her hand from James's belly.

"Is he - sticky? What is this?"

Castle laughed, so hard that she lifted her head from his hip and watched him with a raised eyebrow. "I forgot," he admitted. "That was dinner. I made chicken alfredo and the wolf really liked it. Right, Jay?"

James gave his mother that shy smile and Kate laughed, a tired sound but at least happy. She shifted then, crawled up to lie down at his chest; Castle got to put his arms around her and drop his chin to the top of her head, James left to giggle as he climbed their tangled legs.

"What was that about?" he murmured. But he was happy to have her up here with him; he wasn't complaining.

"Just couldn't make it before," she sighed.

"You gonna make it down the hall to our room for his bath?"

"Yeah. You know how it is. Oh, never mind, you don't. For the rest of us, first few minutes you wake up-"

He growled and pinched her skinny hip; she jerked and laughed, drawing her legs up to avoid the baby.

"Oh, don't make me laugh. That's exhausting," she gasped.

"Hey, I was thinking."

"Uh-oh."

He rolled his eyes, scratched his fingers at her scalp. "Thinking maybe we should call Logan and see if he can't make us another infusion."

Kate stiffened. "But that's - from James," she said.

"It is," he said slowly. "But it's better than giving you supplements, babe."

"Maybe."

"Maybe?" he growled. "Kate-"

"Better than the supplements, yes, fine. But I don't like - I don't like taking from James."

"He took from you," Castle frowned.

"But he's _supposed_ to. I'm his mother. I'm-"

"Okay," he said quickly. "Okay. It was a thought."

"Give me a _day_ to at least - to have a chance to do this without resorting to taking from our kid."

"You're right. A day, a week, however long it takes. That's not what I was trying to - I just want you to feel better."

She gripped his shirt and gave a shuddering breath out, her nose pressing hard into his chest. "I didn't mean to freak you out. In the cottage. I just - hit a wall and-"

"No, no, love. I know. You didn't freak me out. You're allowed to hit a wall and fall apart and whatever you gotta do. What I'm here for."

James started crawling up their legs with that winning smile, heading for his mother's arms. Kate opened up to him, embraced him - sticky alfredo sauce and all, and Castle watched her love on their son.

She was okay; she was going to be fine. He couldn't jump off a cliff every time she needed to take twelve hours off and sleep the day away. She was still recovering and yesterday she had completely gone above and beyond.

He gripped the knot of her hair at her neck and touched his lips to her forehead as she cuddled with James. "Hey. Kate?"

"Yeah."

"You showed up yesterday, had my back and kept our family safe even though, damn, it's taken its toll."

"I just-"

"It's fine; it's our life. I wanted you to know that I see it - what you're doing for us, how you manage to be everything we need."

Kate sucked in a breath and turned her cheek to the top of James's head, her eyes meeting his. "I hope so."

"I know so," he said firmly. "You're an amazing woman - wife, mother, partner, secret spy." He grinned and she shared the flickering smile, something in her look that reminded him of James when he was shy. He touched his fingers to her lips, wanting to feel their shape. "No one should be able to do all that and yet you keep doing it. You never let me down. How do you manage to do that?'

She bit her bottom lip, her eyes filling, but she wasn't crying. Her smile was watery but there was so much joy in it.

"I love you," she whispered. "That's all. I just love you."

* * *

Kate slowly worked the shirt off over James's head, being careful of his neck. Her nine month old baby was beginning to be such a little boy, and even now as he gave her a shy smile and reached for the teething ring - rescued from the sand and washed clean by Reese - he was rolling over and scooting away.

"Castle," she laughed. "Get him."

Castle came back through to the bedroom and grabbed James before he could get to his feet and run off. He picked up James and made the boy laugh, rubbing his beard against James's bare stomach, the kid gripping fistfuls of Castle's hair and gasping.

Kate threw the shirt into the pile of dirty clothes in the corner, smiling at her boys. Castle put James back on the floor, setting his feet to the bare wood, and the boy rocked forward, made a lurching run for the dog, who withstood the embrace.

Sasha licked his cheeks of alfredo sauce and James giggled.

Kate glanced at the pile of clothes. "Hey, Rick. How much stuff do we have here for him?"

"We got one of his bags. Mostly clothes. But we're running short on the cloth diapers."

Kate winced. "I should do-"

"Not you. I've already got a load in the washing machine. Your dad is going to put them in the dryer. We'll do them as fast as he goes through them."

Kate grimaced and lifted her eyes to her husband, but Castle shook his head at her. She knew what he wanted to say without him having to say it. This was just life.

"We should probably take an inventory."

He nodded. "Yeah, I just haven't had the time."

Her father came out of the bathroom, drying his hands on his jeans. He scooped up James and did the same trick, tickling the boy on his bare belly. When James had slumped into exhausted delight in his arms, Jim grinned over at her.

"You're feeling better?"

"Yeah," she promised. Still sitting on the floor without the will to move, but better.

"Bath's ready for you guys. Do you need me...?"

"No, no," Castle said. "You're off-duty. Feel free to explore."

"I'll take Sasha with me, if you don't mind. Give her a chance to get out too."

"Oh, thank you, Dad," Kate murmured, staring longingly at her puppy. And the outdoors, and not being this damn tired. "That's a huge help. Castle, a hand?"

He came to her and practically did all the work lifting her to her feet. She followed him to her father and kissed Jim's cheek, hugging him even as Castle took James from his arms.

"Go have fun, Dad."

"You're so jealous," he chuckled. James chuckled in imitation of him and they laughed.

"I am jealous," she admitted. "But I'll get my turn. After I sleep for days. Come on, my guys, time for bath."

Castle nudged her forward into the bathroom and she went ahead of them, sinking down to the floor beside the tub, her elbow propped on the jacuzzi side. The water smelled like her son, that mix of baby soap and the lavender night time mix they added to the bath. It was a massive tub too, and she would never reach James like this. Bath time was work.

Damn it.

Castle came in then with a naked little boy, dropping the used diaper on top of the toilet lid. James was trying to reach out for her, but Castle kept him, lowered him into the bath, and then sank down to his ass in the bath water.

"What are you doing?" she laughed, staring at him.

"No bath seat," he shrugged. "And he's strong, but this tub is huge."

"Yeah," she sighed, eyeing the water. She wanted in.

"You want in?" he said, eyebrows dancing.

She bit her lip and then lifted up from the tub, stripped off her shirt. "I want in."

"Can you make the climb?"

"There are stairs," she protested, laughing at him.

"Do you need help undressing, because I could be persuaded-"

"Let me just striptease for you instead," she grinned, slowly pushing off the tub to get to her feet. Not sexy really, but there _was_ a kid in the room.

Castle moved his hand in front of James's eyes, and she laughed again, bubbling with it, her husband in his soaked shorts and bare chest, and herself so damn tired it wasn't even happening.

But she slipped her thumbs into the waistband of her boxer shorts, worked her hips side to side as she slid them down her legs.

"Fucking hell, Kate," he growled. "I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be doing that around him."

She laughed, caught-breath surprise, beamed at him. "And you're very sweet." She stepped slowly out of her shorts, slowly enough to be sure that she wouldn't fucking trip over them and ruin the whole thing.

Castle rubbed his hand back over James's head, dampening his hair as he did, spiking it up. "I'm not really kidding."

She was in panties and a bra and she felt about as attractive as a limp dish rag, but still Castle was shifting in the water and looking uncomfortable, avoiding making eye contact.

She got a foot on the step leading up to the jacuzzi tub and eased herself over the side, letting out a soft breath when the warm water washed over her. James gave her his surprised face, rounded mouth and wide eyes, and then he clapped his hands, clearly impressed.

She cupped his cheeks in her hands and kissed him for it. "Oh, Daddy has been talking to you again, hasn't he? My boys are so encouraging."

Castle grunted as she lifted up again. Kate lengthened her leg and nudged him with a toe, his body filling the rest of the space. He shook his head and started running his wet fingers through James's hair, the boy's head tugging back as he played with the measuring cups someone had found for bath toys.

Kate pushed a floating 1/4 cup towards him and James beamed at her, slapped the 1/2 cup in his hand into the water so that it sprayed up and doused her.

James's mouth dropped open in a round O, his eyes wide.

Kate laughed, lashes wet, and it made James laugh too, and then Castle was leaning forward, the boy braced against his leg. She went very still, waited while her husband slowly drew his thumb under her eyes, wiping away the bath water.

She had to remind herself to take a breath.

When she opened her eyes, it was all over his face. How much he loved her, what he would do for her, how amazed he was.

She bit the corner of her lip and automatically opened her arms to her son who was trying to crawl into her lap. But her eyes were pinned to her husband's. She wanted so badly to not be this tired, to be able to do something about how much love was welling up.

"Castle."

"Yeah?" he gruffed.

"Will you write me more of the artist's story?" she asked. Because it did something to settle her, reading the words that poured out of him, but even more than that-

Even more than that. The writing did something for him too, reconciled the broken parts of him, made him _okay_ with whatever trauma they'd been doused in.

"For you, Kate, anything."

For him too.

* * *

When James woke at eight, as bright-eyed as he ever was, Castle softly carried him out of the living room and got him changed and dressed in the empty bedroom, letting Kate sleep. (They'd claimed the couch last night.) This morning, the baby wanted to snuggle for the most part, kept trying to dip back down against Castle's chest as he wrestled the kid into a shirt and shorts, and he figured it was the best time to get a few things done.

"We'll make breakfast at Uncle Colin's," he whispered, kissing James's cheek as he carried him out. Jim was in the kitchen with coffee, but Castle declined. "I'm gonna head over to talk with Colin Hunt. He's - well, I guess he's family whether we like it or not, so we're going to get a few things straight."

"You're taking James?"

"Yeah. Keep it - civil," Castle said, shrugging his shoulders.

Jim stood up and hugged him. "Be nice, son." Castle laughed, surprised by the admonition, but Jim only shrugged back. "Kate would say it. So I figured I could be your stand-in Beckett."

"She would definitely," he admitted. "It's gonna be tough love, but it's necessary. He's lied to our faces more than once, and Kate's bound and determined to forgive him for it. So."

Jim winced. "Kate doesn't easily trust, but once she's made that deicison, she doesn't back down."

"Exactly that," Castle sighed. "I'll make it clear to him."

"Well, then, I approve." Jim gave him a tired smile. "This is a little off-topic, but how long do you think we need to stay out here?"

"Shit, I'm sorry. It's been-"

"I don't mind, son. Not one bit. I've got a few projects on my plate, but they're not time sensitive. I'm retired," he grinned. "I'm flexible. Just like to know how it's shaping up out there."

"We're still gathering intel on this group, the Collective. With one of their top members gone, dead, it's going to cause a shake up," Castle admitted. James was falling asleep again, so he jostled the boy awake. "We'll ride out the storm here. I'd say a few weeks, for sure, but the real question is - do we need to get you moved to a new place in the city? That's going to be answered in the next few days, as we find out what they know, how much they trusted her information to be accurate, that kind of thing."

"Sounds pretty open-ended," Jim said, rubbing his jaw. "Well, then I propose this: let me head to the mainland for a few days. I'll get supplies and start shipping stuff back here. You send a guy with me who knows how to do that covertly, obviously I can't deliver a mattress to your front door, but Kate needs a bed."

"Yes, sir," he said, feeling chastened. "That's a good idea. You don't mind being our personal shopper?"

"Not a bit. And Kate can pick out what she wants online, I'll be in-store to get it seen to."

"You're a lifesaver," Castle sighed, then went ahead and gave Jim a side hug, so damn relieved he couldn't help himself. "That takes care of so much."

"Whenever you have someone you can spare, I'll go."

"I'll send Reese out with you," Castle said firmly. Reese was the most experienced with being a personal bodyguard, plus the guy had been in the service. Reese was the one he trusted the most. "We'll get that done today."

Jim nodded, looking pretty pleased with himself, and Castle made a note to include the man in his plans more often. He was her father; he'd been taking care of business for longer than Castle had - and he'd taken care of James like another parent.

"I appreciate this," Castle roughed. "There are so many things to get done, and I keep having to put this on the back burner."

Jim winked at a sleepy-eyed James, patted the boy on the back. "I'll round up Reese and tell him the plan. We'll get going."

Castle nodded. "And I'll get breakfast going over at the guest house. If Kate wakes-"

"I'll tell her."

"Thanks." He gripped Jim's shoulder and then left the man to his mission.

* * *

It was scrambled eggs and toast again, but at least Colin looked like he wasn't going to pass out just from sitting up in bed.

Castle set the tray on the mattress at Colin's left side and then he sank down into the empty chair with James in his lap, and a plate of their own.

"Really?" Colin said, eyeing the boy. "You bring your kid along for every interrogation?"

"Only to yours," Castle said cheerfully. "Since, you know, you say it's a vicious feedback loop."

"My headache isn't going to get you what you want to know."

"Don't need to know a thing, Colin." Castle held out his palm to James and let the boy pick out pieces of scrambled eggs from his hand. He couldn't be trusted with the plate, not with his motor skills, but a messy hand was worth it if he could sit right here with Hunt and look him in the eye.

"Then what's this about?" Colin said finally. But he did take a slice of toast.

James garbled something around his hand, shoved deep in his mouth with egg, and Castle settled his free hand over the boy's head, smoothing his hair down where sleep had mohawked it.

"We're just gonna have a talk," Castle said. "Brother to brother."

"Oh, really."

"With Black for a father - or no father at all - you and I are probably a lot alike. Same defensive mechanisms, same coping skills. One of my coping skills - taught to me by my training, drilled into me at every opportunity - was how to get what I needed no matter the cost."

"What is this about, Castle?"

"It's about Kate," he answered quietly.

Hunt closed his mouth.

"I won't say I'm perfect, or that I've learned everything there is to know about being a good man for her, but I do know a few things. And one of those is that you can't lie to Kate."

"I wasn't lying. I just didn't say everything I knew-"

"This isn't time for a defense," Castle interrupted. "You've had your judgment day. You're lucky Kate's merciful, because I'm not. What I'm trying to make you understand is that the thing about Beckett? Once she's decided you're with her, you are _with_ her."

Colin stared into his plate.

"She doesn't _let_ you go. She won't leave you behind to die; she won't let go. And yes, that means she'll take it if you abuse her trust. She'll take it every time. But you do _not_ get to abuse her just because she'll take it."

"You're not-"

"This isn't about me. This is about Kate. I had to learn - I _got_ to learn - by being with her. By trial and error. She taught me how to keep from mangling her heart."

"Would you just shut the fuck up?"

"I know. I know it's cruel to rub your nose in it, but here's the thing, Colin. Looks like you're going to be in our lives. We can't escape it. She wouldn't let us anyway. So if you really do love her, if you love her and you don't want to just fuck her over," -fuck, it was so damn difficult to say that- "then you better fucking act like it."

Colin put the toast back on the plate and didn't say anything, didn't touch the food.

"You have _got_ to stop betraying her. You can't lie and act like she won't come through for you, act like she won't be fucking loyal to you, because I am telling you now, she will never let go."

"She won't let go," Colin echoed, voice scratching.

"She isn't built to let people go." Castle sucked in a breath, let it out again. "And I want you to fucking _feel_ it. From me. How it feels. To have you fucking wound her, wound _her_. So I brought James in with me. Give you a nice feedback loop for breakfast."

"Bloody hell," Hunt whispered.

"It's not because she's my wife. It is only because she's Kate. No one ever taught me that what I was doing to people was wrong. That it wounded them, my betrayal. It was for the job, it was just the job. And then all of life was the job, so then I was lying and cheating and stabbing people in the back like it was breathing. But Kate taught me differently. And now I'm teaching you. I'm telling you. Brothers."

Colin closed his eyes. Castle shut up and sank back into the seat and let James pick at his scrambled eggs, and hopefully all this fucking awful feeling - knowing Kate _hurt_ \- hopefully that got to him.

Because Colin couldn't do that to Kate.

* * *

"Dad?" she muttered, confused by her father hovering above her.

"Hey, sorry to wake you, honey, but I'm headed to the mainland. Wanted to say good bye."

Kate grunted and tried to sit up, tangled in the blankets on the couch, practically falling into him. Jim caught her with a rumbling laugh and patted her back, and she found her feet and stood, launching herself into his arms.

He gruffed something and clutched her back, a faint desperation to it that made her heart speed up. "Dad. Why? Why are you leaving?"

"Hey, what's all this?" he said, patting her back again. She wriggled closer, her _father_, her dad, the man who had patiently tucked her into bed every night because her mother was still working, still at the office, his voice gentle and never begrudging, answering any and every question she lobbed his way just so she could prolong her bedtime.

"Are you - leaving us?" she mumbled.

"I'm doing a supply run with Reese," he said fiercely.

"It's not - is it safe?"

"Of course, honey. It's safe. One of the guys is ferrying us to Nantucket and we'll get what we can there, send it back with the boat. Then Reese and I will take the ferry to the mainland and pick up stuff for you all here. It's quite safe."

"But she was heading for you. She was trying to get to you and I-"

"No, no, Katie. Stop this. None of this. I'm superfluous right now and I want to do what I can to help."

"No, you're not," she cried out, clutching him where she hadn't loosened her embrace. She _heard_ herself, how she was starting to fall apart, and she didn't know why; she had no idea why. "You're my dad; I always want you here."

And then he kissed her cheek fast, gripped her by the shoulders and pulled away. "Rick knows how best to keep you. Not me anymore, shouldn't be me. But this? I can do this."

"Daddy," she whined, sinking back into him like her son did when he was overtired.

"Pouting is beneath you, Katie. Chin up." He chucked his hand under her chin just like he used to do when she was eight and failing miserably at ice skating. Every damn time she fell, he picked her up and said _try again_.

She still sucked at ice skating; she had _yet_ to stay up longer than five minutes, but he was right. She got back up.

She straightened her spine. "Dad, you still are needed. Don't go because you think Castle is the only thing I see. You're a constant help with James and my kid really adores you. He goes to you for comfort, you know."

"Oh, honey, I know you see - you see too much. But Rick really is the only one allowed to see you back. No, don't look at me like that. It's just fine, it's how it has to be. You're so vibrant around him. I'm grateful. I'm more grateful than I have words to say. Now let me do what I can to be part of it."

Her father kissed her forehead and then turned around and left her alone in the living room.

She blinked and glanced around at the blank space, the empty walls, and then out the broad windows to the verdant lawn and the painfully blue sky.

She wanted to be - to get back up off her ass and keep trying, even if she was abjectly miserable at it.

Kate scraped her hands through her hair.

She wanted Colin Hunt not to matter, his betrayal to mean nothing. More than that, she wanted to go home.

Where was Castle? Where was her son?


	12. Chapter 12

**Close Encounters 27**

* * *

She showered. It took a while but she got it done. She dressed. Took a little less time because she just pulled on yoga pants and a loose t-shirt and scraped her hair back into a pony tail.

James liked to play with her hair, and the pony tail meant he'd twirl his fingers around and around and-

Okay. Well. She wasn't that much of a sap but. Uh, well. Squishy. She could accept that one. She had the tendency to be squishy when her little boy played with her hair.

Or when Castle came up behind her and lowered his chin to the slope of her neck, a soft kiss and the hum of his contentment at her back. That-

Stupid. Stupid to be standing still like an idiot in the middle of the room - a pile of dirty clothes in one corner and James's now-clean diapers stacked up on top of his open duffle bag.

Hell. Go find them, you squishy idiot.

She walked outside barefoot, the damp places on her skin quickly evaporating in the summer heat. The sun was a force out here, bouncing off the glassy waves, illuminating the whole bay. She wanted to get down there, float in that calm serenity.

Her father thought he was unnecessary; he was going out there to make himself useful to them.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead with the heel of her hand. The cottage was nestled in the dip of the grass and she made her way to the front door, let herself inside.

"Mama!" James came bolting for her, hurtling himself into her knees. She crouched down and rubbed her fingers through his hair, spiking it up, and he lifted his head to give her that shy smile.

"Hey, wolf. What are you and daddy doing?"

"Kate, glad you made it over," Castle said, coming to get James. "Hunt's in there. He's got something to say."

"What?" she asked, bewildered by the blunt address.

Castle lifted James up and loudly smacked a kiss to the boy's neck, making him giggle, and then carried him back to the kitchen table. "I'm making lunch; we've been over here talking. Lost track of time. James is hungry. Aren't you, wolf? So we took a break."

"Colin has something to say?" she repeated, moving slowly to follow him. "Wait. Why did my dad leave?"

Castle lifted his gaze to hers, his body hunched over James in the kitchen chair, trying to keep him seated. "He heard us talking yesterday about how we didn't have the supplies we needed. And called me out on not having a bed for you."

She grunted, frowning at him. "Castle, I'm fi-"

He pointed at her, leveling a glare her direction. "Don't even."

She huffed, sinking down into the chair beside James. The boy clapped his hands, hugged them under his neck, shy smile and all. She reached out and rubbed her thumb at the smudge of something over his eye. He ducked her touch.

Oh, oops. A bruise. "Sorry, Jay. It's attached. What're you guys making for lunch?"

"Grilled cheese. Tomato soup. Protein powder," he grinned, shrugging at her. "Want some? Be good for you too."

"Yeah." Her stomach growled and James chuckled, making her laugh as well. She scratched his scalp and he wriggled in his chair, so pleased with himself. Such a big boy. "What about you, wolf? Tomato soup isn't quite your speed."

"He can gum on toast. And I'm making him some eggs again." Castle winced. "We really need rice cereal, fresh fruit. A nutribullet so I can puree his vegetables. Your dad going is a lifesaver."

She sighed and leaned in to kiss James's forehead. "All right. You need food. I'm being panicky for no reason."

"Panicky?" Castle said, his head coming up from the stove where he stirred the soup. "Is it panic attack panicky or just-"

"Just," she interrupted. "Tired is all. James. I see elephant on the floor. What're you doing?" She leaned over and picked it up, dusting it off. She handed it back to him and James beamed, hugging it around the neck. "And where's Sasha? She usually fetches elephant for you."

"Dog's outside," Castle said.

"Castle," she gasped. "You let her loose?"

He turned around, giving her that _do you think I'm stupid_ look. "No one is carrying on the island, Kate. Not a single one of the guys has a weapon on him. There are weapons stashed in the houses, the perimeter guard shacks, but there is a very specific mandate that they cannot be carried."

"Oh," she whispered.

"None of the foxes will be trapped, the pheasants stay in the bushes, and Sasha is perfectly safe here. So is our son."

She sank back against the chair. "Of course. I..." Kate took a breath. "You saved my baby foxes?"

"The whole nest."

"You think foxes can be tamed?"

When Castle looked at her, his whole face softened, tender towards her in a way that made her fingers curl around James and long for things.

"Kate, love, foxes usually can't be tamed. But with you, anything is possible."

* * *

Castle knew that Hunt wouldn't want to do this with him in the room, but he didn't like the way Kate was shying away from the meeting. She took her time over lunch, practically dawdling, spending an inordinate amount of time cuddling James and mothering him when he was already over it.

James finally wriggled off her lap and down to the floor, scooted off towards the pots and pans Castle had pulled out for him to play with. Toys. They needed to send Jim to a store and get a cruiser, like one of those lawn mowers to push across the floor like he did to Sasha. Stacking toys - blocks or those car garages, repetitive motion; James was endlessly fascinated by the cars' slide down the chute. Something with language acquisition since James seemed ambivalent about learning his sounds.

Though he seemed perfectly content with pots and pans.

Castle watched Kate out of the corner of his eye, the faint movement of her fingers as she picked at the crumbs of lunch. He made up a plate for Colin, all while he studied her, and as she seemed to wilt, he knew it was time to get it over with.

"All right," Castle said. "Come on, Kate."

She lifted a startled pair of eyes and he stood up, reaching for her hands to pull her to her feet.

"Stop stalling," he said. "Hunt has something to say." He turned and snapped his fingers for the boy. "James Beckett. We're going with mommy. Come on."

James raised an eyebrow as if saying _yeah right_, which only made Castle laugh. He released Kate's hands and moved for James, picked up the boy and carried him away from the pots and pans.

"Castle, really-"

"All of us," he said, threat and promise both. "Supervised visits until we're sure that Colin Hunt is feeling - himself again."

She scowled at him, but he knew her. He _knew_ she wasn't up for this, for wrangling with whatever it was that happened between her and Hunt - had happened or would happen. Had she been feeling better, not quite so exhausted, he'd be glowering and pouting as usual.

But she was already stressed out; she was already tied up in knots about him and Colin and herself, and he wasn't going to add another load. He was going to head into the room with her and be her bulwark, the foundation she needed to make it through this-

And the emotional feedback loop from their son to shore her up.

"Castle," she protested again. But he was guiding her by the hip, he and James nudging at her back to get her moving, herding her towards Hunt's bedroom door.

"I left him alone to rest, but he can be woken for lunch." He had the man's plate in one hand and James on his other side, Kate before him as he crowded her in the hallway.

"Fine, fine, stop pushing," she muttered. "Here, give me that." She took the plate from him and twisted open the knob, went right on into the bedroom without hesitating.

"That's my girl," he murmured.

She shot him a dirty look over her shoulder, but she set the plate on the bedside table and leaned over Colin, shook him awake. Hunt startled up as if from a bad dream, let out a gasp of air as the movement did something to him. He curled on his good side, knees coming up.

"You okay?" she said softly, her hand on his shoulder.

Castle cradled James against his chest and sat down on the chair in the corner, out of the loop, not wanting to intrude. Perhaps just be a faint reminder, a little feedback loop of his own. Whatever the fuck that meant.

A little headache.

Kate straightened the covers and sank back into the seat beside the bed. "We've brought you lunch."

"Lunch," Hunt echoed hollowly. He shifted on the bed and managed to sit up, glancing once over at Castle and James. "Thanks."

Kate blinked, looked over at him as well. Castle avoided her eyes and set James on his feet, those little hands curling around his thumbs and bouncing, giggling.

"Good kid," Hunt said, clearing his throat.

Castle could hear Kate sigh from here. "He's only a baby," she murmured. "So much of his character is still being shaped. We're doing the best-"

"I meant it, Kate," Hunt said. A note of sadness in his voice. "He's a good kid."

James was grinning like he totally knew they were all talking about him.

"Well, thanks," Kate said softly. She lifted her eyes from James and caught Castle's. There was a desperation in her gaze that nearly had him out of his chair; she wasn't comfortable and she was just exhausted enough to look to him for help.

But he couldn't do that. She needed this too.

"Kate, I owe you an apology."

Her head whipped back to Hunt, staring. "Colin."

"I've never had... even my own mother wasn't someone to trust with anything precious. I don't know how to be selfless, how to put someone else first, let alone be family."

"Colin," she sighed.

"You both have - you came back for me in the woods. You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, we did," Kate said. She was studying Hunt now, something stronger, steel going down her backbone. Castle was relieved to see it. "We had to come back for you because I promised you - because you made a sacrifice for me, you showed up for me. And you are, actually, family."

"Not that we've had such good luck with family," Castle interjected, pointedly so that Hunt would get to it.

"No, we haven't. Any of us," Colin said, tilting his head back against the wall behind the bed. "I don't know how to do this, Kate. My first instinct is to protect myself. Get out. Cut my losses. But bloody hell, you have a kid. I can't do that."

"Do what?" she said quietly.

Hunt swallowed and lifted his head again, his eyes meeting hers and then drifting over to James. "I can't keep - playing you. Betraying you. And I'm sorry."

Kate was quiet. Castle could see her picking at the arm of the chair, her brow furrowed.

"I'm sorry I'm a lousy - lousy brother. Sorry I - hurt you, Kate."

"You didn't hurt me," she denied. Denial it was. Neither Castle nor Hunt believed her, not even James did. The boy was straining to go to her, and Castle finally let go of him, allowed him to lurchingly run towards his mother.

Kate let out a startled breath when James ran into her, but she reached down and cupped the back of his head as he hugged her knees. "Hey there, wolf."

"I've got to report in when I get the chance," Colin got out. He was staring at James and Kate. Castle felt a slithering pride that _he_ had made that, his family, that she and James were his and he belonged to them.

Hunt was on the outside.

And yeah, that fucking sucked. Castle had been the outsider; he knew what that was like. "Colin," he said. "John Black - Jackson Hunt - he was the kind of father who cultivated a sphere of isolation. It caused severe independence, unmatched confidence, and self-reliance. But it also made it fucking impossible to connect with anyone."

Kate sucked in a breath and stared at him - because she knew what came next. _She_ did; she came next.

"But then I met Kate," he said carefully. "And she changed everything for me. I know that - in some ways, she's done the same for you. Cracked you open. Something about you, Kate." He shrugged at her, hands flat on his knees, watching her cuddle James.

"It wasn't just me. You were already there, Rick."

He shook his head, looked back to Hunt. "So, I get it. You don't know what to do now, don't know how to handle it. And while I had Kate to teach me, make me understand, you don't."

"Well, thanks, big brother. If I didn't already feel like shit."

"That's exactly what I'm getting to," Castle growled. "Brothers. Taught the same fucking things, by the same asshole, even if he never showed up for you - taught you the same things, didn't he?"

Hunt rubbed his hand down his face. "Fine. Yes. The bastard. And so?"

"And so Kate and I - and James, and her father, and this family we've made out of our friends - we'll teach you. James is pretty great teacher, actually."

Colin's jaw dropped. So did Kate's, actually, but he'd wanted Hunt to fucking get here on his own, apologize to Kate and look like he damn well meant it.

Castle himself wasn't thrilled about Hunt being around Kate, but when she wasn't fucking exhausted, she could more than handle Hunt. And Colin Hunt was already part of this, whether Castle wanted him to be or not, and so Castle would have to work to get this man even close to being worthy of it.

Get him up to speed but with the help of their whole family, not Kate alone; never Kate alone. It was a group effort.

But right now she was tired, and she needed him to do this, to be better than her jealous husband when he had no _need_ to be jealous. She needed him to not antagonize Hunt because it _hurt_ her, and he'd just spent the last few hours explaining to Hunt how they didn't do that. They didn't hurt Kate.

"Castle?"

"So is it a deal?" Castle asked, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. "Colin? You family or you out?"

Colin stared at him.

James clapped.

Castle grinned and glanced at his son, saw him beaming at the whole room, gracing them all with his smile. "Well, we've got official approval. Colin?"

"I..."

Kate was staring at him, and it felt pretty damn good to have surprised her.

Colin's eyes slid to Kate and finally back to Castle. "I'm - in. I'm in."

"Then, here," Castle said. He stood quickly and moved for James, picked the kid up from where he stood before Kate. "You can baby-sit. He naps for about two hours after lunch. So you eat, rub his back, he'll fall right to sleep."

He lowered James to the mattress beside Hunt and cupped the back of the boy's head. James sank into the pillows and lifted both arms to Castle. He obliged, lowered to give James a fierce hug, making the kid giggle again. His tired giggled.

Being a feedback loop was hard work, wasn't it?

Castle kissed his son's forehead and straightened up, ignored the flabbergasted indignation rising in Colin's eyes, and he turned back to his wife. He gripped her by the wrist and pulled her to her feet before she could protest.

Outside in the hall, she finally found her voice. "Castle. What the hell-?"

"You trust him or not, Kate?"

She let out a breath, frowned.

"Yeah, I don't either. Don't worry, we've got a camera in the room. Security monitors set up, the guys have it covered. Len's got the feed right upstairs too."

She was glaring at him. "Rick Castle."

"We gotta make him think we trust him, Kate, or he won't ever get there. Plus James - he can hold his own. And he's your son. Got a lot working for him."

He was a feedback loop; a little headache. Yeah, James would be fine. Hunt was injured enough to be mostly manageable.

Kate suddenly stepped into him, buried her face against his neck, her arms sliding around his waist.

He twined his arms around her and gripped the back of her head, softly kissed her temple.

"Come sit on the beach with me," he whispered. "Come away with me, Kate."

"Yes," she said, her voice catching. "I want to see the ocean."

* * *

He hadn't taken her down to the bay, the quiet, tranquil bay.

No. He'd led her through the cool woods to the shoreline against the sandy cliffs' edge of their island. She couldn't get down to the ocean from here, but it pounded violently against the crumbling rocks below, something fierce - and soothing in that fierceness.

She sank back against Castle's chest, his arms loose around her as they sat together. He was leaning against one of the birch trees, the thin white trunk, with a knee pulled up. Kate turned her shoulder into his sternum, knees tucking under his drawn up one. She laid her hand over the snarling tattoo at his chest, just below his t-shirt, felt his heart thumping.

Neither of them spoke - couldn't be heard over the pounding surf anyway - but Castle pulled out his phone and propped it up at his hip, where her eyes fell naturally.

When she saw the video on his phone, she had to smile, nipping her teeth against his chest in gratitude. He knew her too well: he had the security feed from Colin's room and she could see her baby boy, sacked out on the bed, safely asleep.

Her worry sifted, settled out, and disappeared.

She could see that Colin Hunt was asleep as well, lunch uneaten, his hand resting on James's back like he'd been in the middle of comforting the boy, just as Castle had told him. James was cared for, the monitor showed him content, and she was feeling her own exhaustion now.

Kate drew her other arm around her husband and closed her eyes, fingers gripping the waistband on his shorts, her other hand stroking the inked wolf.

The crash and tumult of the ocean below them was just what she'd needed. She would have been just as restless in the bay, with its peace and its easy, lapping waves. The chaos inside her own heart was being played out here, on their island, and she was awash in how numbingly grateful she was to this man. Who knew her. Who absolutely knew her.

As if timed to perfection, as if he knew the wandering line of her thoughts, Castle lifted his hand and stroked his fingers through her hair, drawing the sweaty tendrils off her neck. He blew a breath against her skin and rubbed his thumb over her ear. "Sleep, love. You should sleep."

"Getting there," she promised.

"Too hot?"

"Mm, no. Perfect." The stand of birches provided just enough light to warm her bones and make her liquid against him, but the breeze and the cool shadows kept her energy from being drained by the sun. It was soporific in its own way.

He kissed her temple, a pressing kiss to the corner of her eye. He couldn't possibly believe she'd fall asleep if he kept touching her like this.

Kate drew her hand down to the hem of his t-shirt, pushed her fingers up and under to bare skin. His muscles jumped and twitched as she slid her palm back up to his heart, to the bristling wolf she knew was there.

Castle's fist knotted in the hair at her nape; she could feel him straining down to kiss her. But his cheek merely scratched against hers, that downy-thorny beard abrading her skin.

"Talk to me," she murmured. For him as well as herself. "Tell me about Jolin." He needed to talk just as much as she needed to be in the loop.

"We had to get rid of the body. Burn it. But she was wearing a ring; I sent it to my father."

She startled, eyes opening to look at him.

"He may have loved her, somehow. Or not. Either way, he ought to know what he did to her."

"Did you tell him she'd been taking it? For - for those weird experiments with telekinesis?"

"No. Best leave that out of everything." His fingers stroked at her neck, into her hair tangled by the wind over the island. "Mitchell and his team grabbed her personal effects from the motel room. Walker confiscated her laptop and while it _was _definitely connected to the Collective's network, he said she hadn't sent them anything in a long while."

"Damn. We got lucky," Kate breathed.

"And now Walker has an inside link to the Collective's network. Plus Colin Hunt."

"Hunt?" she whispered.

"He has handlers in the main organization. He was reporting to them while supposedly on Jolin's payroll. She thought he was on her side, they had Black as a mutual enemy, mother and son against the conniving father. So Hunt will be going back to the Collective, telling them the story we carefully construct."

Kate _must_ be exhausted, to have missed that. "I get it now. What you've been doing. Basic brainwashing techniques in there. Shit."

He didn't apologize, just kept brushing the hair off her neck.

"But it's smart," she admitted. "We need someone on the inside who can tell us how much information they gathered from Jolin. Someone who - who knows our family, knows what's at stake. And won't betray us."

"It's not really brainwashing, is it?, if you're undoing decades of brainwashing by a man without a conscience and a woman without a soul. It's what you did for me, Kate. What we can do for him."

Kate let out a breath, a little blindsided by the picture he had of himself. Brainwashed. A hostage to his father's program. God, it tore her heart for him. She tightened her arm at his waist and breathed the clean scent of his shirt. "Not brainwashing. You're right. Just - showing him a better way."

Castle rumbled something under her ear and spread his fingers out at her neck, massaging the muscles where they attached to her skull, making her body loosen again.

He brushed a kiss to her ear as he spoke. "From what Walker has gotten with his little trojan horse on their network - they're so off-base it's going to be decades before they get even close to Black's program. More - they'd begun to doubt Diane Jolin nearly ten years previous. A review board was even set up to second-guess her work. Which is how Hunt got where he was in _their_ hierarchy."

"She must have been suspicious of the Collective as well," Kate sighed. "That's why she wanted to talk to Black, to me in Paris. Right? She must've felt them pulling away from her."

"That's our working hypothesis. She _was_ a pacifist, ideologically. And the people in charge were nominally on her side until she got too far out there for them. But until we know for sure that the Collective didn't get a single bit of data about us, we stay here."

Under the warm sun, their little island. "I should-"

"No, Kate."

She dragged open her eyes, not sure when they'd closed. "Castle. You can't just keep me swaddled like an invalid. I-"

"I can. And I will, if you make me. You need to _recover_, Kate."

"I _know_ that," she muttered, irritated with his hands on her, the wall of his body surrounding her, the way he _trapped_ her. "I know I need to recover. But I'm also - a mother, wife, an _agent_. I have things to do. Hell, my father is getting us supplies and I've got to-"

"You don't," he insisted. "You don't have to anything. What you have to do is sleep and eat, and I'll make you, Kate, I will _make _you, because you did far more than you should've had to do."

"It was necessary," she muttered.

He reached up between them and caressed her lips, pulling apart the frown she'd been giving him. "It was. And you did it, everything I needed you to do. But now you need to do this. Partner me in this, Kate."

She closed her eyes, trying to cut off the way his gaze seemed to tunnel right down into her heart and make her want to promise him impossible things.

"If you don't, you'll never be strong again. You'll spend all your energy on _doing_ these stupid little things that you don't have to be the one to do, when you should be spending your energy on _healing_. Healing. You can't ever heal if you waste your strength on insisting that you be the one to carry James or make lunch or track down the Collective."

She sighed.

"You know I'm right. You just don't want to admit it." His whisper caressed her ear like a breeze, made her skin tingle. "I love you anyway, and I'm going to make you stop."

She growled and opened her eyes again. "Just don't - don't keep me out of the loop. I need to know. You have to-"

"I won't. I'll let you know every last thing we do. I promise."

She sighed and turned her back into his chest, her face to the horizon of brilliant blue sky and turbulent ocean. Castle went still, but she reached back and dragged his arm over her waist, made him curl around her.

"Then I promise too," she muttered.

She kept her eyes on the ocean, hoping its violence could drain her own, drown out her restlessness.

Maybe it could.

Castle kissed the back of her neck and she shivered.

Maybe it all could.

* * *

**the end** of **Close Encounters 27: Sea Fire**

**stay tuned **for **Close Encounters 28: GoldenEye**


End file.
